How a U.S. Marine Became a Warlord in Somalia

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.netnomad.com/aydiidyounger.nyt.html

August 12, 1996

By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.

OGADISHU, Somalia -- One of the many oddities in this battered capital is that a son of Gen. Mohamed Farrah Aidid, the Somali faction leader who humiliated the United States in 1993, was a naturalized American citizen, not to mention a U.S. Marine.

But that bizarre footnote took on a new dimension last weekend after the general died of gunshot wounds he had received in battle. His clan elders, meeting behind closed doors, selected the same 33-year-old son, Hussein Mohamed Farrah, to become the new president of Aidid's self-proclaimed republic.

It was a strange choice, politicians here say. Until a year ago, Farrah was living an obscure and mundane life in a Los Angeles suburb, going to school part time and working as a clerk in the West Covina engineering department for $9 a hour. The closest he had come to his father's way of life was when he served as a corporal in the Marine reserves.

Now Somalis throughout this war-weary country are waiting uneasily to see how the young warlord with the American accent will change the balance of power among the clan leaders who have carved Somalia up into what amounts to feudal kingdoms.

On the ruined streets of Mogadishu, the same questions were heard on many lips last week: Is the son a copy of his father -- the ambitious and ruthless general who wanted to subdue the entire country by force? Or will he be a peacemaker, a man capable of ending the civil war that has scourged this harsh desert land since 1990?

Any hope that Farrah's appointment would soon lead to a cease-fire here evaporated this weekend as his forces clashed outside the city in heavy fighting with militia members loyal to Mohamed Ali Mahdi, whose Abgal clan controls the north end of the capital. A counteroffensive by Farrah's followers was meant to push back Ali Mahdi's troops, who had cut off Farrah's section of town from a major airport.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. I swear I tried to sell this as a plot

in the MODERN era, and I'd be shown the door.

Now in sci fi, or fantasy... standard fodder. Son who comes to claim dad's throne.

[thunder rising]

2. Gee, I know Dad died heroically, but the problem is that he is dead. Shot dead .. right?

This ain't like inheriting Tahiti.

American Mercenaries win contract and Aidid ends up dead.

[anonymous171]

3. Wow. nt