Islamic militia says it captured Somalia capital

MOGADISHU, Somalia - An Islamic militia said Monday it has seized Somalia’s capital after weeks of bloody fighting and 15 years of anarchy in this Horn of Africa nation, raising fears that the nation could fall under the sway of al-Qaida.

The militia appeared in control of Mogadishu. Most of the leaders of a secular alliance that opposed them — and was rumored to be backed by the United States — appeared to have fled the city by Monday afternoon.

“We want to restore peace and stability to Mogadishu. We are ready to meet and talk to anybody and any group for the interest of the people,” Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, chairman of the Islamic Courts Union, said on a radio broadcast.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13148204/

should take up racehorse track betting. At least we'd know which horse to bet against.

fuck 'em, Somalia doesn't have any resources, just a bunch of starving darkies, right? Well I guess they won't be tasting any Bush style democracy then. :eyes:

yesterday - we supplied and are supporting the Alliance for the Restoratiaon of Peace and Counter Terrorism (ARPCT). Who are these people we are backing (or past tense) backed to fight Islamists - they are the former warlords of atrocities against the people of Somalia. These are the warlords who dragged U.S. soldiers through the streets in 1993. Last Friday, the people took to the streets condemning the U.S. for supporting the warlords.

Who's supplying money and equipment to the Islamic clerics' militia?

These are the people who decreed that the appropriate punishment for a man convicted of killing a teenage boy's father was for the teenage boy to execute his father's killer in public.

same people who we accuse of funding other terroris - and they are our friends (make that they are the leaders who fund terrorists who are the good friends and partnere of our leaders - simultaneously)?

Sometimes they're non-state entities.

It really is a question; I hope somebody at CIA and NSA knows the answer. But I rather doubt it.

Not just one.

Some information on these various groups can be found here:
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=3830

"Since the collapse of the government in 1991, a variety of Islamist reformist movements have sprung up inside the country – some inspired or sponsored by foreign interests. The vast majority are non-violent and opposed to ideological extremism. The largest groups, notably Jama’at al-Tabligh and the Salafiyya Jadiida, practise missionary activism aimed at steering lax Muslims back towards the true path of their faith. A much smaller proportion, including Harakaat al-Islah and Majma’ ‘Ulimadda Islaamka ee Soomaaliya, are politically active but not extremist, struggling rather to influence the future of the Somali state and its political system. By far the smallest reformist groups are those composed of jihadis, such as the now-defunct al-Itihaad al-Islaami and the new, nameless one fronted by Aden Hashi ‘Ayro.

Other, ostensibly Islamist entities have more complex origins and agendas. The Shari’a (Islamic law) courts that have sprung up across southern Somalia over the past decade began as essentially clan-based institutions intended to restore security and order in a stateless society. Attempts to unify and coordinate the court system, however, have been in large part politically motivated, and some courts have been hijacked by jihadi leaders. This kind of cooperation, combined with independent sources of funding, has allowed some courts to exercise greater independence from their clans, and since early 2005, the Shari’a court system in Mogadishu has been pursuing an aggressive political and social agenda.

The growth of courts, charities and businesses with an apparently Islamist character has sparked fears in some circles of a conspiracy to transform Somalia into an Islamic state. In reality, the Islamist activists are a diverse community, characterised more by competition and contradiction than cooperation, making a broad-based conspiracy implausible.

Islamist extremism has failed to take a broader hold in Somalia because of Somali resistance – not foreign counter-terrorism efforts. The vast majority of Somalis desire a government – democratic, broadly-based and responsive – that reflects the Islamic faith as they have practised it for centuries: with tolerance, moderation and respect for variation in religious observance. Ultimately, there is no better way to confront jihadism than to assist Somalis in realising such a government.
"

Peace.

Fund them one year and fight them the next.
Or fight them one year and fund them the next.

This is probably a good sign that things are not what they seem.