^ I highly doubt it. The natives there (from what I hear ), pronounce boor as boodh. So, if that were the case, the city would have been called boodhama. As to what it means, I've no idea. It's probably meaningless.

Red Sea, thanks for sharing this video which I'm sure is very nice. Unfortunately it's a little too long and a tad bit dry. No butts shaking, no guns firing, just good news about the university. Also, FYI, it's borama, not borame.

Attack on Ethiopian Forces in Somali Capital Turns Deadly By VOA News 20 January 2007 Witnesses to a shooting in Somalia say at least four people were killed Saturday after an Ethiopian military convoy was attacked in Mogadishu. The Ethiopian soldiers are reported to have opened fire with anti-aircraft guns after at least one unidentified person shot at the convoy. The victims were bystanders caught in crossfire. Several people were wounded. Today's incident follows an attack Friday on the presidential residence in Mogadishu. Witnesses say unidentified gunmen fired mortar shells into Villa Somalia, then exchanged gunfire with troops before retreating. There were no reports of casualties. Somalia's interim government is trying to establish its authority after driving out Islamic militias with the help of Ethiopian forces. The Horn of Africa nation has been mired in anarchy since warlords ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. The African Union's Peace and Security Council approved a plan Friday to send nearly 8,000 AU peacekeepers to Somalia, as Ethiopia has indicated it is anxious to withdraw its forces from the war-torn country. But so far, only Uganda has agreed to provide troops for the proposed mission. VOA

LOL. Waaryaa Red Sea, war kadaa atheer. I heard A/Y was screaming like a little girl in the basement of Villa Somalia when Dinari slapped him and told him to get a hold of himself.

Originally posted by Ameen: from what I know (from those fellas that are married told me) the only way to know that she is the one…is by ... a paternity test.

Gunmen Attack an Ethiopian Convoy in North Mogadishu weys Osman Yusuf Mogadishu Gunfire exchanges have taken place in north of the capital on Saturday between Ethiopian troops and unknown gunmen. Witnesses told Shabelle that number of Ethiopian troops backed by tanks were passing by the main road of north of the capital when they were attacked by the gunmen. The skirmishes lasted half an hour. The exact number of casualties is not yet clear. Hospital sources also indicated that no wounded people were brought to the hospital either last night or today. Residents in north Mogadishu said they could hear the deafening sounds of artillery fire that was used during today's fight. The African Union decided last night in a meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, that about nine battalions of African peacekeepers should be deployed in Somalia as Ethiopian government said it would hesitate withdrawing its military troops from Somalia in the coming days. AllAfrica

Mogadishu - A convoy of Ethiopian tanks and armoured vehicles was ambushed in southern Mogadishu on Saturday, triggering a major gun battle in the Somali capital, said witnesses. There were no immediate reports of casualties in the clashes, which came after a late night attack on the residence of interim President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed. "I saw a load of gunmen ambushing an Ethiopian military convoy," said Ali Moalim Hashi. "The Ethiopian forces immediately returned fire and there was fighting." Another resident, Mohamed Sheikh Dahil, said it appeared as if the attackers were able to escape after they launched their assault. "When the Ethiopian tanks were attacked, they were forced to open fire in defence. There was fighting but the gunmen fled," he said. Dahil said the Ethiopian forces immediately sealed off the area and it was not immediately possible to determine whether there had been any casualties. News 24

A little too fond of Buchanan lately, are we Xiinow? I can't blame you though. The man has been talking nothing but sense the past few years. It's hard to imagine this is the same man who, shortly before he announced he was running for president in 1995, said : "You just wait until 1996, then you'll see a real right-wing tyrant."

I think it's time Yonis was left alone. What say you Solers?

LePoint, I see you've destroyed the criteria you've (conveniently) set up yourself. I'll put together some form of a rebuttal IA in the next few days. Good effort by the way.

Originally posted by sheherazade: Will Castro throw in a wash and blow-dry too? Absent any impropriety, I certainly would. Originally posted by NGONGE: I plan to eat a small, tiny, harmless leaf. It’s been a very very long time since I tried that and today, right now, I’ve got a strong urge to chew myself into oblivion. Don't do it saaxib. Not unless I'm in town.

Originally posted by Brown: OMG! This is shocking!!! Is the President ok? :eek: :rolleyes: Balaayo ma dhimato.

Originally posted by Abaadir: Castro: What do Barre Hiilaale and Abdulaahi Yousuf have in common that you don’t like? Here's a hint: " .... the puppet regime is a group of imbeciles. That they would feud over this is not surprising but expected. The titles they hold are meaningless, as their actions show. And their behavior fits that of the simple, unintelligent reactionary men that they are."

^ Instant classic.

^ I'm further sure he won't say anything nice about Hiraale. So don't get your hopes up.

I suspect Xiin thinks nothing of it. You see, HA, for us, the puppet regime is a group of imbeciles. That they would feud over this is not surprising but expected. The titles they hold are meaningless, as their actions show. And their behavior fits that of the simple, unintelligent reactionary men that they are.

Conflict in the Horn of Africa: The streets of Mogadishu After a brief taste of stability under the Islamic Courts, a new conflict is spreading. Steve Bloomfield reports from the city where civil war has become a way of life Published: 19 January 2007 Standing amid a pile of rubble on a Mogadishu street corner two young men, faces covered by red scarves, loaded their rocket propelled grenade launchers. Three spare grenades and an AK-47 were slung over their backs. By their feet lay a box containing a remote-controlled mine similar to the improvised explosive devices that have proved so deadly to British and American soldiers in Iraq. A second pair of similarly armed men stood at another junction 200 yards down the road; two further pairs were stationed nearby. Watching the fighters take up position in the Black Sea area of southern Mogadishu, 37-year-old tea shop owner, Nuuro Mohammed Diirive, called for a "resistance" to drive Ethiopian troops out. "Somalia has been confiscated by Ethiopia," she said, waving her arm in anger. "We are not free people. We are under the colonial master. We must find an army to resist them." Mrs Diirive, a mother of seven, said Somalis should be prepared to lay down their lives to defeat Ethiopia. "We will use suicide bombing. Maybe my children will do that." The same pattern was occurring across the battle scarred Somali capital yesterday afternoon. In the north of the city 10 masked men stood outside a mosque waving their AK-47s in the air and chanting "Allahu akbar". In the past few days the price of a rocket-propelled grenade launcher in Mogadishu's Bakara arms market has risen from $400 to $1000. Sales of AK-47s have soared. "The Islamic Courts are arming now," said one trader. A decade-and-a-half of civil war takes its toll - on a people and on a city. Once upon a time there was a beauty to Mogadishu. Now, it is a city utterly destroyed by war. Through the bullet-riddled walls, crumbled houses and crater-filled streets it is possible to see how far the city has fallen. The remains of an ornate white-washed baroque balcony sits above a handful of destroyed shop-fronts where malnourished goats are now the only customers. There is barely a single building which is not scarred in some way. Most have been so badly damaged they can hardly be called buildings anymore. Entire streets are lined by nothing more than piles of rubble. A thin layer of grey dust covers everything, from donkey carts to telegraph poles. Yet the modern world clashes jarringly with the past. Goats and cattle vie for space on Mogadishu's potholed highways with brand new 4x4 Pajeros imported from Dubai. Despite there being no central bank or functioning ministry of finance, Somalia's black economy continues to thrive. Market stalls are crammed on to every major street, many of them selling khat, the mild narcotic that was banned by the Islamic Courts. For the six months that the Islamic Courts were in control of the city there was a level of peace and security here that had been absent for the preceding 15 years. Even those who soon tired of the Courts' increasingly radical leadership and their insistence on banning music and the broadcasting of World Cup football matches agree that their rule made Mogadishu more stable. Less than a month ago Ethiopian and Somali government troops rolled into Mogadishu driving out the leaders of the Union of Islamic Courts who had controlled the capital since June. The Islamists had been expected to put up a fight. Instead, they appeared to crumble. Their leaders were chased from town to town while Mogadishu itself fell without a shot being fired. The United States, which gave tacit approval to Ethiopia's invasion, had accused the Islamic Courts of being run by an al-Qa'eda cell and of sheltering terrorist suspects. US air strikes attacked the fleeing Islamists in the village of Ras Kamboni and the Courts appeared to be defeated. But now the insurgency against Ethiopia's occupation has begun. Members of the radical Islamic group, al-Shabaab, have re-emerged in Mogadishu vowing to ambush Ethiopian and Somali government soldiers. "We are not defeated," one of the fighters told The Independent. "We are back in action." The only piece of clothing which signifies their membership of al-Shabaab is a red scarf wrapped around the face and head. If the attacks on Ethiopian and Somali government troops are successful they said they would take off their scarves and disappear into the city. By nightfall, al-Shabaab fighters were positioned in four key areas across Mogadishu, waiting for troops to drive past. Al-Shabaab's leader, Arun Ayro, is back in Mogadishu having fled with other Islamic Courts leaders to Ras Kamboni. Fighters on the street said yesterday that Mr Ayro would not leave until the Ethiopians were defeated. Many analysts had expected al-Shabaab to defend Mogadishu when Ethiopian troops invaded. Instead the Courts announced they were withdrawing from Mogadishu in order, they said, to prevent bloodshed. The al-Shabaab fighters on Mogadishu's streets yesterday gave a different reason. "We did not want to be hit by the Ethiopian bombs," said one. "We feared the air raids." As Ethiopian and Somali government troops took control of Mogadishu, al-Shabaab melted away into the city. But now they are back. The start of the insurgency was announced yesterday in the form of a leaflet which was distributed across the capital. Titled "Heavy Warning", and with two pictures of AK-47s, the leaflet said that Ethiopians, who they referred to as "colonialists", would "face new insurgent operations and attacks". They warned Somalis to stay away from Ethiopians "and their stooges", a reference to Somalia's weak government, which was only able to defeat the Islamic Courts with the backing of neighbouring Ethiopia. That backing has come at a price. Ethiopia was already deeply unpopular in Somalia following two invasions in the past 45 years. Now there has been a third, Somalis appear united in wanting Ethiopian troops to pull out. Osman Hassan Abdulaahi, a lecturer at Mogadishu University, is also angry. "Ethiopia is an occupying force. We are under occupation. We are the same as the Palestinians and we should fight like they do. If someone occupies your land you must take up arms to show resistance." Mr Abdulaahi, 40, accused the interim Somali government, headed by a former warlord from the Puntland region, Abdullahi Yusuf, of succumbing to the sort of tribalism that has ripped Somalia apart since 1991. "He is not doing a proper reconciliation," said Mr Abdulaahi. "The country will slide back into civil war." Civil war has been a near-permanent state for Somalia since the military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown 16 years ago. Successive attempts at establishing a new central government failed and Somalia's capital was carved up by warlords - big businessmen who employed clan-based militia to stake out their territory. In a country awash with AK-47s and with no rule of law, arguments tended to be settled at gunpoint and Mogadishu became the most-dangerous city in the world. Mustafa Mohamed fled Somalia in 1989, becoming a refugee in London. Starting work as a waiter he eventually rose to become an assistant manager, working at one of Terence Conran's restaurants, Le Pont de la Tour. Now he is back in Mogadishu leasing 4x4s to wealthy Somalis and a handful of western visitors. Sitting in a café in southern Mogadishu he said the city has already begun to become more unstable since the Courts left on 28 December. "The Courts believed that if you did not follow their religion as they do, you could not be a part of them but they had the support of the people," he said. "They did a job that no one could have done. Everybody was scared of killing when they were in charge." Few appear to be scared of killing now. The sound of gunfire ringing through the night sky has become a constant soundtrack to life in Mogadishu. Locals call it "Somali music" and in the past few nights the music has become louder. "I don't know how long it will be before more trouble strikes," Mr Mohamed, 37, said. "We are just waiting to see if something goes wrong this weekend. You don't know when the next bullet is going to strike you. You have to be careful where you go and who you mix with." But for many of Mogadishu's estimated two million inhabitants, the threat of violence is just one of the many fears that stalk their lives. For the city's poorest, most of whom fled to Mogadishu to escape civil war in other parts of the country, life is no different whether it is under the warlords, the Courts or the government. Work is difficult to come by and the lack of income inevitably leads to empty stomachs. The dusty track leading to Nasato Saciid's home is littered with rubble. Bracken and cactus trees have sprouted through the ruins of crumbling shells that once were houses. Eight members of her family live here among the debris. At night they all crowd into the only room to still have a roof. If they had a mattress, there would be nowhere to put it. During the day her four children play among the rubbish. Her five-month old baby girl lies on a mat protected from the sun by a ragged cover made up of more than 30 different bits of cloth and tarpaulin tied together with string and propped up by a thin log. Just 25-years-old, Mrs Saciid, has spent almost her entire life trying to find a way to survive in a country falling apart. She spends her days at home looking after her children. Her husband was once a mechanic but can find no work in his trade. Every morning he leaves the house at first light to go to Mogadishu's markets seeking work. "If he gets some money I cook for the children," said Mrs Saciid. "One day we get meals, one day we miss." Yesterday she missed. Her husband returned with just 3,000 Somali shillings - the equivalent of 13p. Mrs Saciid was able to buy a small amount of millet which she cooked for her children but she and her husband were forced to go without. "There was a bit of peace under the Courts," she said, "But life was about the same. They did not create any businesses. They did not open any schools. I can't predict who is good. They are all alike. They do not create a society." Her eldest son has just started to go to a local madrasa. "I did not want to send him there. The Koranic schools teach too much geography and history of their land in Arabia." But there are no other schools and Mrs Saciid, who never had the opportunity to go to school herself, is determined to ensure her children get some form of education. "What future will my children have?" she asked with a sad smile. "It is a very hard life and I don't expect it to get any better." Independent

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN MOGADISHU, Somalia, Jan. 18 — A week ago, Yoonis Issay Alin was riding around in the back of a pickup, part of a squad of tough-looking guys with big trucks and big guns. Now he is drooling on a metal cot, shot in the head over a parking spot. All around him at Medina Hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, young men writhe in steamy beds, their arms and legs trapped in traction ropes, their gunshot wounds the latest proof of a society out of control. It is hard to imagine there is enough gauze in this broken-down country to keep up. Somalia may be at a turning point, with a potentially viable government for the first time since 1991. But senseless violence is still the norm, as ubiquitous as qat, the plant people here chew and chew as a drug until the ugliness of life fades away, even if just for a moment. Mr. Alin, 22, was one of the thousands of young militiamen who prowl this city. Now his family is on a death watch, with his sisters squeezed around his hospital bed, peering into his open, unregistering eyes, and his creased-faced mother leaning over him, shooing away flies. “In this country,” said his mother, Halima, “nobody cares if you live or die.” His skull is encased in a helmet of white medical tape. He has been drifting in and out of consciousness, and doctors say they have no way to gauge the amount of brain damage. “There are no neurosurgeons here, no M.R.I.’s, no CAT scans, no psychiatrists,” said Sheikhdon Salad Elmi, director of Medina Hospital. “Can you imagine that? In a city where everyone needs therapy, not a single psychiatrist?” Mr. Alin’s journey from a tin shack where he slept on a dirt floor with four brothers and five sisters to the employ of a warlord was typical of so many young Somali men. It was not planned; it just happened, like the bullet that was fired at someone else last Friday but tumbled instead through Mr. Alin’s brain. His father, Issay, an off-again-on-again brick mason, was killed in a robbery in 1993 — two years after Somalia’s central government collapsed and the country spun into anarchy — leaving behind no money, just a crusty trowel that none of his sons knew how to use. His mother supported the family by selling qat in a neighborhood called the Black Sea, bringing in the equivalent of a few dollars a day. It was enough to buy two jerry cans of water from the donkey carts that jangled by every morning and the occasional meal of spaghetti and camel meat, Mr. Alin’s favorite. But it was not enough for school. So Mr. Alin and his brothers spent their days combing the city’s bullet-scarred streets for odd jobs, like pushing a wheelbarrow or hauling fish. In the afternoons they worked out in their yard, curling a 25-pound tank shell found nearby, which by a quick, delicate inspection looked as though it could go off at any time. “I think it’s safe,” said Didi, his 17-year-old brother. Last summer things changed. A grass-roots Islamist movement took over Mogadishu after running the city’s warlords out of town. The young Islamist soldiers wore green skullcaps, eschewed qat and cigarettes and vowed to unite Somalia’s warring clans under the banner of Islam. Many people, including Mr. Alin, were impressed. His friends said he was religious, never missing prayer. A green flag hangs over his sleeping spot — there are no beds in his shack — with the message “There is no god but God, and Muhammad is his Prophet.” But when Mr. Alin tried to join the Islamists he was rejected. They took one look at his teeth, stained brown from qat, and told him to go away. So he went to Baidoa, a city 150 miles away, to find Botan Issay, the warlord of his subclan, the Duduble. Somalia’s warlord issue is complicated. Some people call them thugs, and Mr. Alin’s militia buddies readily admitted that their income came from stickups. “We make what we make from the barrel of the gun,” said Ahmed Muhammad Siad, 25. “That’s how it is. Yoonis usually told us to go easy on people. He was always too nice.” But in a world with no police and no security, the clan warlord was sometimes the only protection. “When it comes down to it,” said Ali Mahdi Muhammad, a clan leader, “you can only count on your clan.” Fearful of the dangers of militia work, Mr. Alin’s family tried to keep him from going to Baidoa. But Baidoa had an irresistible pull. It was the seat of the internationally recognized transitional government of Somalia and the one big town in south central Somalia that the Islamists did not control. For Mr. Alin, that meant all the qat he could chew. “Yoonis was chasing the green grass,” said Muhammad, Mr. Alin’s 25-year-old brother, with a sad shake of the head. But in late December, Somalia was turned upside down again. The Islamists attacked Baidoa, provoking Ethiopia, which labeled the Islamists a regional threat. Within a week Ethiopian-led troops crushed the Islamist army, and American forces helped hunt down its leaders. Mogadishu’s graying warlords rushed back to town, with their militias and their firepower. The clan militias instantly returned to their old ways, setting up checkpoints and shaking down residents. The transitional government pleaded with them to disarm. They refused. On Friday, a disarmament meeting was called at the presidential palace for all of Mogadishu’s top warlords. While Mr. Issay, the Duduble warlord, went inside, Mr. Alin and other Duduble militiamen waited by the palace gates. All of a sudden, witnesses said, soldiers for another warlord, Muhammad Qanyare Afrah, started arguing with palace guards about where to park their armed pickup truck. Someone pulled out a gun. The palace guards opened fire. Several of the Duduble militiamen standing nearby were hit. Eight men were killed and five seriously wounded. Somalia is definitely the wrong place to get a bullet in the brain. It took a half-hour to organize a car to take Mr. Alin to Medina Hospital, and when he arrived the two operating rooms were occupied. Osman Abdullahi, a burly man with a stained smock who performed the surgery on Mr. Alin hours later, called himself “an assistant doctor.” He unwrapped a crumple of white butcher-like paper smeared with blood and showed the bone fragments that he had tweezed from Mr. Alin’s frontal lobe. Mr. Alin is now in the intensive care unit, which looks like every other room in the hospital, with tiles peeling and mosquitoes swarming, except that most of the ceiling fans there still spin. Mr. Abdullahi said that Mr. Alin would probably live but that it was not clear if he would be able to talk. On Thursday, his family got a positive sign. Mr. Alin briefly sat up in bed, looked around and giggled. NY Times

^ Riyaale can drop it like it's hot. Can Cadde or Geedi do that? HA, you missed the message in my words.

My money is on Somaliland. Zenawi like's Riyaale better than Cadde.

^ I think LePoint can read between the lines (when he wants to ) and should figure out, if he hasn't already, what's going on here. Thanks for the compliment atheer. Though my wife would insist remaining on SOL is no well wish.

^ And I must withdraw (with an apology) the underhanded and inappropriate reference to flat earth. This is a very important topic, in my view, and being short on time today, perhaps we can both reconvene later and make a decent discussion out it.

It was an allegorical example but you might still be a proud member of the flat earth society. Nonetheless, in the past few weeks I tried to bring articles (of excellent repute) that show the invasion of Somalia is an old plan as the title of this thread aptly described. Furthermore, the plan was not an impromptu (fall of 2006) knee-jerk reaction to the ICU Jihad calls but the the window of opportunity was the Jihad calls. The two are not mutually exclusive. Finally, here are some of the articles I posted in the past last week alone in an attempt to help connect the dots for those who're not immersed in this as I am. dot dot dot dot dot dot If you're still unable to connect the dots, perhaps I can point you to some more reading.

^ I have been sharing it. Neither mathematical proof nor pictures from space showing the earth being round was enough for flat-earthers. What makes you think you're any different? The only 'opportunity' here was finding a group of people with the right mix of intelligence (or lack thereof), disloyalty and greed. It took a while but they were finally found (or assembled) in the TFG leadership

Somalia has best chance for peace in years: UN Thu Jan 18, 2007 7:20 AM EST By Daniel Wallis MOGADISHU (Reuters) - The top U.N. envoy to Somalia, making his first visit since a war last month, said on Thursday the Horn of Africa nation now had its best chance to end 16 years of anarchy and bloodshed. Francois Lonseny Fall, special representative of the U.N. secretary-general, made a swift visit to Mogadishu two weeks after Ethiopian and Somali government troops swept aside Islamists who had run south Somalia for six months. "This is the best opportunity for peace for 16 years in Somalia and we must not waste it," Fall said after meeting interim President Abdullahi Yusuf in the bullet and shell-marked presidential palace, Villa Somalia. "I want to congratulate you. To see the president in Villa Somalia is a very important step," Fall told Yusuf, who days ago came to Mogadishu for the first time since his 2004 appointment. The Villa Somalia was the seat of former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, whose 1991 overthrow plunged the country into years of anarchy and bloodshed. Escorted by a mix of U.N. guards and Somali government forces wielding AK-47s, Fall urged Yusuf and other leaders of the interim government to reach out to opponents and create an all-inclusive administration to avoid further conflict. "There has been a lot of crime, a lot of devastation, but if you look back and say 'this man killed my son or husband' you will never be reconciled in this country," Fall said. "We should leave the judgment to God. Only Allah can judge everybody." Ethiopia is eager to pull out its troops and there is widespread concern about a vacuum unless an African peacekeeping force can be brought in to safeguard stability and protect the government. The United Nations has endorsed such a force in principle, but so far only Uganda has publicly pledged to contribute troops and other nations are wary of the risks. Until the war, the government was confined to the southern town of Baidoa and in danger of being overrun by a militant Islamist movement born out of sharia courts in Mogadishu. "NO MORE WARLORDS" Now installed in Mogadishu, it faces a mammoth task to pacify one of the world's most lawless and gun-infested states. As well as the threat of guerrilla strikes from surviving Islamist forces, the government needs to reconcile feuding clans and keep former warlords in check. "The will of the international community and of the U.N. is to see a reconciled Somalia. The road is still long and we still have a lot to do," Fall, a former prime minister of Guinea, told Yusuf. "We don't want any more warlords in Somalia. We will not tolerate that. We want a government." Yusuf, a 72-year-old former soldier, urged his visitor to relocate U.N. offices for Somalia from Nairobi to Mogadishu, and insisted his government was already engaged in dialogue. "As you can see, reconciliation is going on. We are meeting all the faction leaders," Yusuf said, accompanied by warlord Said Hersi, known as General Morgan. "Today we are disarming them and I think everyone is very happy now." Wednesday's ouster of the pro-Islamist speaker of parliament was seen by some analysts, however, as a sign the government is keener to exact revenge and concentrate its power than to create a genuinely all-inclusive administration. The Islamists, defeated by superior Ethiopian armor in a one-sided two-week war, have fled to Somalia's remote southern tip near the Kenyan border. Civil society groups who met with Fall underlined the need for reconciliation, and also called for more urgent humanitarian aid for Somalis suffering from a 2005-06 drought, floods at the end of 2006, and a year of conflict across the south. Reuters