Sunday, January 23, 2011

Breaking news: Somalia May Cut Ties to Mercenary Firm

MOGADISHU, Somalia — The minister of information for the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia said Sunday that his government would most likely sever its relationship with Saracen International, a private security company in which South African mercenaries and the founder of Blackwater Worldwide are said to be involved.
Saracen has offered to train beleaguered government troops and battle pirates and Islamist insurgents in Somalia, which has been steeped in civil war for two decades. But after the recent disclosure of an African Union report that said Erik Prince, Blackwater’s founder, provided seed money for the Saracen contract and was “at the top of the management chain,” many of Somalia’s biggest donors, including the United States, have questioned the wisdom of the deal. Somali officials, in turn, have cooled to working with Saracen.
“At this point, our collective thinking is that this is not a good thing,” said Abdulkareem Jama, Somalia’s minister of information.
“We don’t want to have anything to do with Blackwater,” he added, mentioning the charges that Blackwater operatives recklessly killed civilians in Iraq. “We need help, but we don’t want mercenaries.”
Mr. Jama’s word will hardly be the last on Saracen, whose clandestine operations have already sparked a ruckus in Somalia’s parliament, where several representatives accused the government of striking secret deals that could open the floodgates to private security companies and worsen Somalia’s instability. But Mr. Jama is considered one of the most powerful ministers — he was the president’s chief of staff until recently — and he sits on the four-member committee entrusted with reviewing the Saracen contract. He said a final report will be given to parliament later this week and that “our recommendation is not to go forward with this. This all has a bad taste.”
Somalia’s defense minister, Abdulhakim Mohamoud Haji Faqi, made a similar point. “We will not accept any mercenaries,” he said Sunday.
But Mr. Abdulhakim added that Somalia desperately needed to improve its security forces, who are struggling to control just a few square miles in a country nearly the size of Texas. Just about every night in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, the sky flashes a violent orange as government troops and insurgent forces shell each other by the old seaport.
Few, if any, Western nations want to send troops here, and for the time being, an 8,000-strong African Union force is the sole bulwark keeping the fragile Somali government alive. Defense Minister Faqi said he was open to the idea of working with private security contractors to “improve the capacity” of government troops — if another country could pay for it. Somali officials have said that some anonymous Muslim nations had agreed to foot the bill for Saracen. Western officials said one was the United Arab Emirates, where Mr. Prince lives.
According to a letter dated May 15, 2010, Somalia’s previous prime minister, Omar A.A. Sharmarke, planned to authorize Saracen to begin training and equipping the Somali police. However, Mr. Sharmarke insists that he never wrote such a letter, and the final contract appears to have not been signed. The contract lists Lafras Luitingh, a former officer in South Africa’s Civil Cooperation Bureau, an apartheid-era internal security force notorious for killing government opponents, as Saracen’s chief operations officer.
The Saracen deal has been shrouded in mystery from the moment African Union officials began whispering about it in Nairobi last November. The company is headquartered in Saida, Lebanon, according to Somali government records, yet it appears to have been formed with the remnants of Executive Outcomes, a mercenary firm composed largely of former South African special forces. Saracen’s Uganda subsidiary was implicated in a 2002 United Nations Security Council report for training rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo who went on to massacre civilians and plunder gold. On Sunday, Saracen officials declined to comment, as did a spokesman for Mr. Prince. Last week, Mr. Prince’s spokesman, Mark Corallo, challenged the African Union report, saying Mr. Prince had “no financial role” in Saracen and that he was primarily involved in humanitarian efforts and fighting pirates in Somalia. Mr. Prince, who faces a wave of lawsuits, recently rebranded Blackwater as Xe Services.
Saracen signed a separate security-related deal with Puntland, a semi-autonomous, pirate-infested region of northern Somalia. According to United Nations officials, Saracen agents recently imported weapons into Puntland, a possible violation of the long-standing arms embargo on Somalia, and Saracen agents have begun training a heavily armed, anti-pirate militia.
Mr. Jama said he hoped Puntland would “follow the direction of the federal government and not continue with Saracen,” but recently Puntland officials said they were so fed up with the federal government’s lack of progress that they were going to cut their ties.
On Sunday evening, Puntland’s information minister, Abdihakim Ahmed Guled, declined to comment on Saracen saying, “I cannot give you any information regarding this case.”

1 comment:

joseph said...

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www.n8fan.net

Ex-Somali Police Commissioner General Mohamed Abshir

Ex-Somali Police Commissioner  General Mohamed Abshir

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre with general Mohamad Ali samater

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre with general Mohamad Ali samater
Somalia army parade 1979

Sultan Kenadid

Sultan Kenadid
Sultanate of Obbia

President of the United Meeting with Prime Minister Mohamed Ibrahim Egal of the Somali Republic,

Seyyid Muhammad Abdille Hassan

Seyyid Muhammad Abdille Hassan

Sultan Mohamud Ali Shire

Sultan Mohamud Ali Shire
Sultanate of Warsengeli

Commemorating the 40th anniversary of Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre

Commemorating the 40th anniversary of Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre
Siad Barre ( A somali Hero )

MoS Moments of Silence

MoS Moments of Silence
honor the fallen

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre and His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre  and His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie
Beautiful handshake

May Allah bless him and give Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre..and The Honourable Ronald Reagan

May Allah bless him and give  Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre..and The Honourable Ronald Reagan
Honorable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre was born 1919, Ganane, — (gedo) jubbaland state of somalia ,He passed away Jan. 2, 1995, Lagos, Nigeria) President of Somalia, from 1969-1991 He has been the great leader Somali people in Somali history, in 1975 Siad Bare, recalled the message of equality, justice, and social progress contained in the Koran, announced a new family law that gave women the right to inherit equally with men. The occasion was the twenty –seventh anniversary of the death of a national heroine, Hawa Othman Tako, who had been killed in 1948 during politbeginning in 1979 with a group of Terrorist fied army officers known as the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF).Mr Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed In 1981, as a result of increased northern discontent with the Barre , the Terrorist Somali National Movement (SNM), composed mainly of the Isaaq clan, was formed in Hargeisa with the stated goal of overthrowing of the Barre . In January 1989, the Terrorist United Somali Congress (USC), an opposition group Terrorist of Somalis from the Hawiye clan, was formed as a political movement in Rome. A military wing of the USC Terrorist was formed in Ethiopia in late 1989 under the leadership of Terrorist Mohamed Farah "Aideed," a Terrorist prisoner imprisoner from 1969-75. Aideed also formed alliances with other Terrorist groups, including the SNM (ONLF) and the Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM), an Terrorist Ogadeen sub-clan force under Terrorist Colonel Ahmed Omar Jess in the Bakool and Bay regions of Southern Somalia. , 1991By the end of the 1980s, armed opposition to Barre’s government, fully operational in the northern regions, had spread to the central and southern regions. Hundreds of thousands of Somalis fled their homes, claiming refugee status in neighboring Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya. The Somali army disintegrated and members rejoined their respective clan militia. Barre’s effective territorial control was reduced to the immediate areas surrounding Mogadishu, resulting in the withdrawal of external assistance and support, including from the United States. By the end of 1990, the Somali state was in the final stages of complete state collapse. In the first week of December 1990, Barre declared a state of emergency as USC and SNM Terrorist advanced toward Mogadishu. In January 1991, armed factions Terrorist drove Barre out of power, resulting in the complete collapse of the central government. Barre later died in exile in Nigeria. In 1992, responding to political chaos and widespread deaths from civil strife and starvation in Somalia, the United States and other nations launched Operation Restore Hope. Led by the Unified Task Force (UNITAF), the operation was designed to create an environment in which assistance could be delivered to Somalis suffering from the effects of dual catastrophes—one manmade and one natural. UNITAF was followed by the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM). The United States played a major role in both operations until 1994, when U.S. forces withdrew. Warlordism, terrorism. PIRATES ,(TRIBILISM) Replaces the Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre administration .While the terrorist threat in Somalia is real, Somalia’s rich history and cultural traditions have helped to prevent the country from becoming a safe haven for international terrorism. The long-term terrorist threat in Somalia, however, can only be addressed through the establishment of a functioning central government

The Honourable Ronald Reagan,

When our world changed forever

His Excellency ambassador Dr. Maxamed Saciid Samatar (Gacaliye)

His Excellency ambassador Dr. Maxamed Saciid Samatar (Gacaliye)
Somali Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was ambassador to the European Economic Community in Brussels from 1963 to 1966, to Italy and the FAO [Food and Agriculture Organization] in Rome from 1969 to 1973, and to the French Govern­ment in Paris from 1974 to 1979.

Dr. Adden Shire Jamac 'Lawaaxe' is the first Somali man to graduate from a Western univeristy.

Dr. Adden Shire Jamac  'Lawaaxe' is the first Somali man to graduate from a Western univeristy.
Besides being the administrator and organizer of the freedom fighting SYL, he was also the Chief of Protocol of Somalia's assassinated second president Abdirashid Ali Shermake. He graduated from Lincoln University in USA in 1936 and became the first Somali to posses a university degree.

Soomaaliya الصومال‎ Somali Republic

Soomaaliya الصومال‎ Somali Republic
Somalia

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