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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Sat Aug 06 2011 - 17:01:43 EDT
U.S. Weapons Now in Somali Terrorists' Hands
. By <http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/author/davidaxe/> David Axe
<mailto:david_axe@hotmail.com> Email Author
. <http://www.twitter.com/daxe>
http://www.wired.com/about/wp-content/gallery/global/twitter16x16.gif
. August 6, 2011 |
The kicker: It's the cash-strapped Ugandans who are selling the weapons to
the insurgents.
This revelation, buried in U.N. reports and highlighted by controversial war
correspondent Robert Young Pelton at his new
<http://somaliareport.com/index.php/post/1253/US_Supplying_Ammunition_To_Al_
Shabaab> Somalia Report website, raises some unsettling questions about
Washington's plans to out-source more wars in the future.
Shabab is back in the headlines, for some downright evil actions during
Somalia's growing humanitarian crisis. The terror group is "
<https://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/02/world/africa/02somalia.html?_r=1&hp>
blocking starving people from fleeing the country and setting up a
cantonment camp where it is imprisoning displaced people who were trying to
escape Shabab territory," the New York Times reports.
The Pentagon has been striking at al-Shabab since at least early 2007, with
special forces, armed drones and Tomahawk cruise missiles fired by Navy
ships. But most of the fighting against the Islamic terror group,
<http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/authors/434/david-axe-and-john-masato-ul
mer> which has lured as many as 50 Somali-American kids to Mogadishu and
<http://www.warisboring.com/2009/02/24/somali-was-first-american-suicide-bom
ber/> even sent one on a suicide mission, is done by the roughly 9,000
Ugandan and Burundian soldiers belonging to the African Union's peacekeeping
force in Mogadishu, codenamed "AMISOM."
In exchange, Washington pays the troops and sends them regular consignments
of guns, rockets and ammo. Between 2007 and 2009, the bill for U.S.
taxpayers came to around $200 million - and has probably doubled since then.
The problem is, the Ugandan army withholds most of the peacekeepers' $550
monthly paychecks, keeping the money in bank accounts in Uganda accessible
only by the troops' families. Considering "limited shopping opportunities
for embattled AMISOM troops, you would think that makes sense to keep their
money at home," Pelton wrote. "Except that the AMISOM payment debacle leaves
thousands of troops surrounded by tons of weapons with no way to buy even
'small small' things like personal items, sweets or mobile phone recharges
to call home."
So the Ugandans sell their excess weaponry to intermediaries who then sell
it on to al-Shabab. And to keep up their racket, the peacekeepers make sure
to shoot at every opportunity, burning through "an extraordinary amount of
ordnance" to justify continued arms shipments from Washington.
How bad is it? "In April of 2011 the U.N. determined that 90 percent of all
12.7 x 108 millimeter ammunition [in Mogadishu] was from an AMISOM stock
created in 2010," Pelton revealed. "An RPG captured from al-Shabab was
analyzed and determined to have been delivered by DynCorp to the Ministry of
Defense in Uganda. The contract was to supply weapons and ammunition to the
Ugandan forces in Mogadishu."
With the U.S. effectively arming both sides of the conflict, the Somalia
fighting could go on . well, forever, absent major reform. This at a time
when war-torn Somalia desperately needs some peace in order to cope with the
<http://www.warisboring.com/2011/07/24/voice-of-america-somalia-famine/>
worst drought in decades.
This sort of thing
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/05/AR200708050
1299.html> has happened before, and is still happening with
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-trucking-funds-rea
ch-taliban-military-led-investigation-concludes/2011/07/22/gIQAmMDUXI_story.
html> U.S.-paid truckers in Afghanistan. Even so, the Mogadishu arms racket
casts into doubt plans for more military out-sourcing.
Weary from two long, costly Asian land wars, the Pentagon is mulling an
"off-shore" strategy for future conflicts, where U.S. proxies "partners" do
most of the hard fighting. Sure, the U.S. Army and Marines would help with
<http://www.warisboring.com/2010/01/12/u-s-army-africa-boss-the-u-s-army-is-
responding-to-the-challenge-in-africa/> training assistance, and the Navy
and Air Force would
<http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/03/gates-to-air-force-get-used-to-dron
es-cargo-runs/> provide high-tech support. But it would be foreign armies
<http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/12/wikileaked-cable-confirms-u-s-secre
t-somalia-op/> actually pulling the triggers.
But if, like the Ugandans, these armies end up arming their own opponents,
how can we count on them to actually win their sub-contracted war?
Photo: David Axe
See Also:
.
<http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/03/somalia-nixes-anti-pirate-militia-f
or-now/> Somalia Nixes Anti-Pirate Militia - For Now
.
<http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/06/power-struggle-threatens-u-s-outsou
rced-somalia-war/> Power Struggle Threatens Outsourced Somalia War
.
<http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/06/new-bird-of-prey-hunts-somali-terro
rists-raven-drones/> New Bird of Prey Hunts Somali Terrorists: Raven Drones
.
<http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/01/did-blackwater-founder-fund-somalia
s-pirate-fighters/> Did Blackwater Founder Fund Somalia's Pirate Fighters?
.
<http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/12/wikileaked-cable-confirms-u-s-secre
t-somalia-op/> WikiLeaked Cable Confirms U.S.' Secret Somalia Op
.
<http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/u-s-weapons-now-in-somali-terrorist
s-hands/ugandan-soldier-african-union-mission-in-somalia-nov-25-2007-3/>
http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/dangerroom/2011/08/Ugandan-soldier-African
-Union-mission-in-Somalia-Nov.-25-2007-660x438.jpg
. Bad news in the
<http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/06/power-struggle-threatens-u-s-outsou
rced-somalia-war/> five-year-old U.S. proxy war against al-Qaida-allied
Somali insurgents. Half of the
<http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/06/new-bird-of-prey-hunts-somali-terro
rists-raven-drones/> U.S.-supplied weaponry that enables cash-strapped
Ugandan and Burundian troops to fight Somalia's al-Shabab terror group is
winding up in al-Shabab's hands.
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