Mass Murder By Proxy In Somalia: Chris Floyd On America's Third War

Large segments of the big media are either not reporting or misreporting the massive and still unfolding war crime taking place in Somalia, where the Bush administration has been trying another regime change, this time by proxy, using the Ethiopian army as their primary weapon. I've been following this story but haven't been able to give it as much attention as it has deserved.

And that's one more reason to be thankful for Chris Floyd, who has been doing his usual thorough job of seeking out the truth behind the media distortions, and sharing that truth with all who will listen.

The excellent items Chris has posted on this story include the following:

Tuesday, 09 January 2007
US Attacks Somalia, Taking Sides With Former Enemy Warlords

Saturday, 13 January 2007
Air America: Civilian Death Toll Grows in Somalia

Friday, 23 March 2007
Blues for Allah: More Blood in the Wake of the "War on Terror"
Getting Away With It: Rendition and Regime Change in Somalia

Sunday, 01 April 2007
Seeds of Wrath: Bush Sows New Crop of Extremists

Sunday, 08 April 2007
War on Terror Spawns War Crimes Charges in Somalia

Friday, 13 April 2007
Terror War III: U.S. Forces Capture, Render Refugees From Somali "Regime Change"

Sunday, 22 April 2007
Where the Dead Rot in the Streets: Bush's Terror War in Somalia Rages On

Wednesday, 25 April 2007
The Lies of the Times: NYT Pushes Bush Line on Somalia

Thursday, 26 April 2007
Reality Check: Genuine Journalism Exposes Somali Horrors

Sunday, 29 April 2007
Violence and Violation: An Update on Terror War III

Big Surprise: US Troops Used 'Excessive Force' In Firing On Unarmed Civilians In Afghanistan ... Somalia ... Korea ...

BBC News reports:

US marines violated international humanitarian law by using excessive violence in reaction to a suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan, a report says.

The reaction was disproportionate and indiscriminate force used, it said.

That's certainly what it looked like at the time, even though they didn't want us seeing the results, as we mentioned a few days later in "No Photos, Please: Marines Gun Down Civilians In Afghanistan"

At least 12 civilians died and 35 were injured during the incident which took place on 4 March in Nangarhar province.

According to reports we quoted at the time, the original suicide bombing attack had injured one US Marine. Other Marines turned and opened fire on civilians moving along a nearby road, firing randomly into cars and at pedestrians.

And we were not allowed to see photographs of the scene at the time, because, as we mentioned on March 11, the story was an example of How The US Military Protects The American Public From Seeing Details That Are Not As They Originally Were, And Brings Freedom To Afghanistan.

The Afghan report said that, in failing to distinguish between civilian and legitimate military targets, the US marine corps used "indiscriminate force".

"Their actions thus constitute a serious violation of international humanitarian law standards," it said.

Well, you know how it is when you're in a foreign country, you know nothing about the culture, you know nothing about the language, everybody around you is (or could be) the enemy, and who are you supposed to trust?

Besides, you can always say they were shooting at you, and if you're lucky they'll count the bodies as dead terrorists and there won't even be an investigation.

On the other hand not everybody is so lucky. In this case not only have the "hosts" been investigating, but so have the "guests".

A preliminary US investigation agreed with the report that the unit did not come under small-arms fire after the bombing, US media reports said.

Maj Gen Frank H Kearney III, who ordered the inquiry, told the Washington Post newspaper it had found no evidence that the victims were fighters.

"My investigating officer believes these folks were innocent," he was quoted as saying.

That's what it looked like at the time. However:

A US military spokesman said shortly after the incident that the civilians might have been killed by incoming fire from an ambush by insurgents which followed the bombing.

But there was no ambush. Thus we read:

Evidence of a complex ambush involving militant gunmen who fired on the convoy was "far from conclusive", the report said.

According to the authors of the report, who spoke to victims, police and hospital officials as well as eyewitnesses, the marines fired indiscriminately on civilians and their vehicles as they left the scene.

That was the ambush: civilians leaving the scene.

Maj Gen Kearney said no ammunition casings had been found that might substantiate reports that the marines were fired on.

"We found ... no brass that we can confirm that small-arms fire came at them," he told the Washington Post.

No brass. No shell casings. No weapons either. Rather than evidence of incoming fire, what the investigators did find was evidence of lying.

"We have testimony from marines that is in conflict with unanimous testimony from civilians at the site."

Unanimous testimony from civilians at the site is a powerful thing, unless one can show that the civilians are collaborating to tell a unanimous lie. But that gets to be a bit like a conspiracy theory.

On the other hand, it's always useful to say the people you killed were shooting at you, even when it's palpably untrue. Because by the time your story is contradicted, the first news has broken and the story is formed.

This is yet another example of details that are not as they were, but as we can all see, the privilege of passing out details that are not as they were is reserved for the troops who we are asked to support, even if we don't support the war itself.

Thus we suffer not only the burden of waging unnecessary war but also the burden of unnecessary cognitive dissonance.

But that's nothing.

Because halfway around the world, people who never did anything to us have once again suffered "disproportionate and indiscriminate force" because they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when some trigger-happy Americans nearby were attacked.

Oh well. At least they were spared having to endure details that were not as they were at the time.

~~~

Not so lucky were the refugees from the violence following the US-backed Ethiopian proxy overthrow of Somalia's Islamic Courts, as we've mentioned previously and which has been admirably documented in a series of posts from Chris Floyd (see links here).

As we have mentioned, and as Chris has discussed in detail, refugees fleeing the violence have been bombed, arrested, imprisoned and tortured -- all without anyone coming under any kind of attack, under the pretext that al-Q'aeda fighters may be among them.

Meanwhile, a short and informative piece from Ivan Eland at Consortium News details how the instability the Ethiopian intervention was intended to "cure" was caused by American meddling in the first place.

After 9/11, the Bush administration feared that the absence of a strong government in the “failed state” of Somalia could turn the small east–African country—slightly smaller than Texas—into a haven for terrorists.

The administration ignored the fact that other states with weak governments have not become sanctuaries for terrorists. Even if Somalia had become a terrorist enclave, the terrorists, absent some U.S. provocation, probably would not have attacked the faraway United States.

As a result of the administration’s unfounded fear, the United States began supporting unpopular warlords in the strife-torn nation. That’s when the real trouble began.

The radical Islamists in Somalia never had much following until the Somali people became aware that an outside power was supporting the corrupt and thuggish military chieftains. The popularity of the Islamist movement then surged, allowing the Islamists to take over much of the country.

In sum, where no problem with radical Islamists previously existed, the U.S. government helped create one.

Eland classifies this as another example of American policy-makers making "mistakes"; like Chris Floyd, your nearly frozen correspondent takes a dim view of the "eternal incompetence" defense, and regards these events as much more deliberate -- as well as more sinister.

Perhaps it would be easier to see things the way Ivan Eland does, and it would certainly be more comfortable, but reality keeps getting in the wday. Lately, we've been reading about an imprisoned refugee who was because he wouldn't claim an affiliation with al-Q'aeda, and about another who is still being held because he won't agree to work undercover for his American captors. It's difficult to imagine how these practices -- like much else about the way America now approaches the rest of the world -- could still be in place, if they were mere accidents.

But even this treatment may be merciful, compared to past American actions. As Chris has reported most recently, American troops exterminated hundreds -- maybe thousands -- of refugees fleeing from violence in Korea in 1950, under the pretext that North Korean Communists may be among them, according to recently released papers.

Of course, in the 1950s there was no internet, and a good lie was sufficient to cover such atrocities with a web of deceit that could last for fifty years or more. Nowadays there's much more independent communication going on, and more independent journalism too, so in addition to a good lie we need a world-wide system of "terrorist attacks" and the continual unmasking of "terror cells" to keep a cap on the grisly truth. But still the truth gets out.

As Chris Floyd points out,

Mercilessness toward refugees is a venerable tradition in American military policy.

And the sooner we all take in this very simple truth -- and its none-too-simple implications -- the better off we all will be, as this bogus war rages on to its quietly scheduled conclusion.

More Grim News From Somalia -- Innocents Trapped In The Terror War

A Swedish teenager, who was imprisoned for weeks after being caught trying to flee from the violence unleashed in Somalia by the US-backed Ethiopian coup, says she was captured by Americans, and that American troops supervised her captors. US authorities have claimed Americans played no role in the events, but Safia Benaouda contradicts the official account, saying

three men in U.S. uniforms led the Kenyan troops who detained her and other women and children fleeing Somalia on Jan. 18.

"After the American soldiers had detained us they kept in the background, but it was very clear that they were the ones in charge," Benaouda, who was freed from an Ethiopian prison March 27, was quoted as saying by the Stockholm daily Svenska Dagbladet.
...

Benaouda said she was captured along with a group of women and children as they tried to cross into Kenya. The soldiers shot a woman in the group, she told the paper, but didn't give details.

They were brought to Nairobi and then returned to Somalia, blindfolded and handcuffed, before being transferred to a prison in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, she said.

All's fair in counter-terror, apparently. Not just in Iraq but everywhere. If they can claim you're a terrorist -- plausibly or otherwise -- you can spend a long time in prison, in very uncomfortable circumstances to say the least. Chris Floyd has much more about this very sad continuing story:

Terror War III: U.S. Forces Capture, Render Refugees From Somali "Regime Change"

Ethiopia Attacks Somalia For USA And Gets Nuclear Weapons From North Korea In Return

Great minds converge: Two of my favorite journalist/bloggers, Chris Floyd and Larisa Alexandrovna, have been chasing what amounts to the same story from very different angles, and they've just collided over Somalia. The result, as usual when BushCo writes the script, is very ugly.

Chris has reported extensively on the half-baked "regime change by proxy" which America has attempted in Somalia, using the Ethopian army to destroy the relative stability established by the country's "Islamic Courts", most likely because BushCo hates anything Islamic but possibly also because BushCo hates courts.

The result has been predictable: a return to the level of violence that racked the poverty-stricken East African nation fifteen years ago, air assaults against innocent civilians, renderings and torture and every aspect of the depravity that has marked BushCo's excuse for foreign policy ever since the thugs took office .

Your cold scribbler has touched on the story very briefly (here and here, and here), but not as often or in as much detail as it deserves. Fortunately, Chris Floyd has been all over it, as in these recent posts...

March 22: Blues for Allah: More Blood in the Wake of the "War on Terror"
March 23: Getting Away With It: Rendition and Regime Change in Somalia
March 30: Seeds of Wrath: Bush Sows New Crop of Extremists
April 8: War on Terror Spawns War Crimes Charges in Somalia

... and elsewhere too.

Meanwhile, Larisa Alexandrovna has been concentrating on the proliferation of nuclear weapons and she caught an article in yesterday's NYT that says Ethiopia has obtained nuclear weapons from North Korea -- in flagrant violation of BushCo's injunction against dealing with "terrorist" states such as North Korea, not to mention the piddly little side issue of non-proliferation.

It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to put two and two together, but would it be a conspiratorial stretch revealing sickness of mind to suggest that these two foreign policy low-water marks are related?

Not according to Michael R. Gordon and Mark Mazzetti in the New York Times:

Three months after the United States successfully pressed the United Nations to impose strict sanctions on North Korea because of the country’s nuclear test, Bush administration officials allowed Ethiopia to complete a secret arms purchase from the North, in what appears to be a violation of the restrictions, according to senior American officials.

The United States allowed the arms delivery to go through in January in part because Ethiopia was in the midst of a military offensive against Islamic militias inside Somalia, a campaign that aided the American policy of combating religious extremists in the Horn of Africa.

American officials said that they were still encouraging Ethiopia to wean itself from its longstanding reliance on North Korea for cheap Soviet-era military equipment to supply its armed forces and that Ethiopian officials appeared receptive. But the arms deal is an example of the compromises that result from the clash of two foreign policy absolutes: the Bush administration’s commitment to fighting Islamic radicalism and its effort to starve the North Korean government of money it could use to build up its nuclear weapons program.

As usual -- and to its great discredit, the NYT doesn't give its readers any context at all, and they might not even stop to wonder why Ethiopia was in the midst of a military offensive against Islamic militias inside Somalia. In fact they spin away the connections, even as they hint at the very nub of the issue.

What a splendid plateau the art of journalism has reached in post-democratic America!

But nowhere near as splendid as the post-democratic nation's foreign policy!

The two are, of course, intimately linked, for a double dose of splendor.

War Crimes, Nuclear Proliferation, Trading With Terrorists...

Larisa's line "wow, 2 scandals a day now" seems quite apt, if a shade understated.

Chris Floyd With Scott Horton On America's War-By-Proxy In Somalia ... And Much More

Scott Horton says:

Chris Floyd discusses the rendition of an American citizen to Ethiopia until he admits he’s al Qaeda, the nearly unremarked-upon proxy war for the Warlords in Somalia, the arrogant ignorance of America’s political establishments and the distracted apathy of the American people.

Chris and Scott talked for about half an hour, but it seemed much quicker. Click here for the MP3; if that doesn't work you can probably reach it through this page ... or this one. And if none of those do it for you, try here. Sheesh!

I'm listening to it now, and here's my advice: Turn it up!!

Chris even mentions Paul Harvey -- Big Dan is gonna love it!

Many thanks to Chris Floyd, Scott Horton, and Antiwar Radio.

You guys rock!!

Illegal, Unjustified and Deeply, Deeply Stupid

[UPDATED below]

Gwynne Dyer explains why the United States is bent on making a bad situation worse in the Horn of Africa: Washington about to get behind another ugly war

01/01/2007

“THE Ethiopians now are advancing, but that is not the end,” Omar Idris, a senior official of Somalia’s Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), told the BBC on Wednesday

“We know what happened in Iraq, the experience of the Americans... I think this is very, very early to say that the Islamic Court forces were defeated.”

The war is starting in Somalia, but it may end up being fought in Ethiopia and Eritrea, too.

Together, the three countries contain almost a hundred million of the poorest people on the planet.
...
This is a war founded on a misconception and driven by paranoid fantasies.

The misconception was the US Government’s belief that the Islamic Courts, local religious authorities backed by merchants in Mogadishu who wanted someone to curb the warlords, punish thieves, and enforce contracts, were just a cover for al-Qaida.

So the US instead backed the warlords who were making Somalis’ lives a misery.

American support is the kiss of death in Somalia, so the warlords were finally dislodged in Mogadishu last June by an uprising led by the UIC and supported by most of the population.

The warlords fled to an American ship offshore, their clansmen went to ground, and the UIC rapidly took control of most of southern Somalia, bringing order for the first time since 1991.

But the US immediately started plotting its overthrow.

... but not openly, of course? Surely!

Washington’s principal instrument in this enterprise was Ethiopia, Somalia’s giant neighbour to the west.

Ethiopia’s 75 million people outnumber Somalis by seven-to-one — but although the Christians of the highlands have always dominated Ethiopia, almost half of its people are Muslims, like the Somalis.

In Ethiopia’s sparse eastern desert, the Ogaden, most of the people are not only Muslim but ethnically Somali. This is where the paranoid fantasies kick in.

The official American position, stated last week by Jendayi Frazer, assistant secretary of state for African affairs, is that the UIC is now “controlled by al-Qaida cell individuals. The top layer of the Court are extremists. They are terrorists”.

Even US diplomats in the region privately reject this assertion, but it is now an article of faith in Washington.

Still they appear to be trying to bolster their case:

First we had the obligatory chase scene: US Seeks To Block Terrorists From Fleeing In Somalia

and we also had to have the hunt for arms Government in Somalia to seize weapons, which seems to have turned up not very much (see photo courtsey CTV) and now, just in time for the weekend, Al-Qaeda no. 2 accuses Security Council of supporting Ethiopia

Cairo - Ayman al-Zawahri, second-in-command of the al-Qaeda terrorist network, on Friday accused the United Nations Security Council of cooperating with Ethiopia to violate Somalia's territorial integrity.

In a sound recording broadcast on www.alhesbah.org, al-Zawahri said 'the UN Security Council is involved with the Ethiopian crusaders by sending international forces to Somalia and refusing to issue a decree forcing Ethiopia to pull its forces out of Somalia.'

Al-Zawahri called on Muslims across the globe to help their fellow Somali Muslims in all possible ways.

And so on.

The man regarded as right-hand man of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden pointed out that 'the true battle will start with the Islamic campaigns on the Ethiopian forces.'

He further called on the Islamic Courts in Somalia to recompose itself in what he called the new battlefield, the war waged by the US and its anti-Islam allies against Islam and Muslims.

'The United Nations, which divided Palestine and offered a legitimate cover for the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, has now offered a new service to the crusader alliance led by the US against the Islamic Somalia,' said al-Zawahri.

He encouraged the Somali people not to be afraid of the US.

'Don't be taken by the US power as you have defeated it before thanks to God's help,' he said. 'Today it is weaker than before.'

Well what do you know?

Zippity doo dah! al-Q'aeda to the rescue!!

Gwynne Dyer's words still stand, in my humble and slightly frozen view:

The Ethiopian invasion is illegal, unjustified and deeply, deeply stupid
...
From the same folks who brought you Iraq.

UPDATE: Now the Voice Of America gets into the act:

Disbanded Militant Youth Group in Somalia Support Al-Qaida Message

In Somalia, an alleged message from Osama bin Laden's deputy urging Somalis to launch an Iraq-style guerrilla war against Ethiopian forces there is being taken seriously by a now mostly-disbanded group of militant Somali youths known as the Shaabab. In an interview with VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu in Mogadishu, one former Shaabab member warns that he and many of his colleagues are still committed to waging a holy war against Ethiopia.

The audiotaped message, allegedly by al-Qaida's number two leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, appeared Friday on a Web site used by Muslim extremist groups.

The message urged Somalis to use guerrilla tactics, including suicide attacks and roadside bombings, against thousands of Ethiopian troops, backing up interim government forces, in Somalia.

Many Somalis in the capital interviewed by VOA acknowledged that Ethiopia is still considered an enemy and their presence is creating tension.

But they also lamented al-Zawahri's call for violence, saying Somalia, which suffered through more than 15 years of factional fighting, does not need any more instability.

and so on. Pretty soon we got us a genuine ole-fashion' hoe-down.

22 Killed Protesting 'Fraudulent' Election

The BBC reports on what appears to be yet another cold-blooded massacre.

Ethiopians seek missing relatives

Addis Ababa is a ghost town with only a heavy police presence on the streets.

The city has seen three days of street protests over the ruling party's alleged massive election fraud and hundreds of young people have been arrested.

Doctors at city hospitals are working frantically to treat the wounded, many of whom have gunshot wounds.

At the Menelik II Hospital morgue, five narrow wooden coffins were laid out, according to Reuters news agency.

Fakedu Kibret had gone to collect his 34-year-old brother's body. "I'm deeply sad, not just for my brother but everyone who has died," he said.

Eyewitness: Ethiopian protests

Yeneayhu, 29, an Ethiopian lecturer at Addis Ababa University, tells the BBC News website what he saw in the capital on Wednesday when police clashed with protesters accusing the ruling party of fraud in last month's elections.

I was running, just like the others.

But I saw the military people.

They were directly shooting at everyone.

They were aiming right at the people.

It was the worst thing about today's experience in the city.

This is really the most disastrous thing in my whole life.

And tomorrow, from what I have heard, the same thing will happen again.

It will keep happening until the government takes action over the election results.

People want some kind of immediate action.

As of yet though, I have not heard any government body reporting about the situation.

Previously: Ethiopians shot dead in protests

Final results have not been announced [...] reports of massive fraud are investigated.
...
"When the crowd dispersed in fear, they started shooting at them. There was blood everywhere."

Deeper background: Ethiopians flock to cast ballots

Hundreds of people lined up at polling stations with some of the queues extending to adjacent streets.

Security has been tightened, but the chairman of the national elections board says voting is going on smoothly.

More than 300 foreign observers - in the country for the first time - are investigating claims of irregularities.
...
The poll has been marred by opposition allegations of harassment of its agents up to the eve of voting.

One of the main opposition groups, the CUD, said hundreds of election monitors had been arrested, and it threatened not to accept the results of the vote.

The government denies the allegations, saying opponents want to discredit the poll for political reasons.

The National Election Board head, Kemal Bedri, said he was taken aback by the accusations.

Notice how none of this sounds familiar.

Still more background:



Timeline: Ethiopia

Country profile: Ethiopia

Profile: Ethiopian leader Meles Zenawi