U.S. funding Somali warlords - intelligence experts...

[bridgit]

'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has been funnelling more than $100,000 a month to warlords battling Islamist militia in Somalia, according to a Somalia expert who has conferred with the groups in the country.

The U.S. operation, which former intelligence officials say is aimed at preventing emergence of rulers who could provide al Qaeda with a safe haven akin to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, appeared to be seriously set back on Monday when an Islamic coalition claimed control of Mogadishu.

U.S. government officials refused to discuss any possible secret U.S. involvement in the strategically placed Horn of Africa state, which has been wrecked by years of fighting.' http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=831732006

[Selatius]

1. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

It is this same philosophy that led the US to support the fighters who became Al Qaeda in the first place because they were killing Russian soldiers. It is a corrupt foreign policy.

We once even supported the homicidal Khmer Rouge as a counterbalance to North Vietnamese influence in the region during American involvement in that part of the world, and look what happened to the Cambodians afterward. We supported the rightwing paramilitary deathsquads in Chile and the bloodsoaked Contras in Nicaragua as well.

[bridgit]

2. my sense is that the cheney/nixon's ghost/bush/rove/matalin admin...

has not a single clue just what to support or why...but i do hear you