U.S. won't deal with Xasan Dahir Aways

[General Duke]

U.S. won't deal with Somalia Islamist

 

Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys on al Qaeda watch lists

From Matt Smith and Elise Labott

CNN

 

 

Tuesday, June 27, 2006 Posted: 0218 GMT (1018 HKT)

 

-- A State Department spokesman said Monday the U.S. would not deal with the new leader of the Islamic militia in Somalia because of his alleged ties to al Qaeda.

 

But, said spokesman Sean McCormack, administration officials would continue to study the "shifting sands" to determine the group's intentions for the country.

 

Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys was appointed leader this weekend of the Islamic Courts Union, which wrested control of Mogadishu, the country's capital, from a U.S.-backed coalition of warlords earlier this month.

 

He is the former leader of al-Ittihad al-Islami, a Somali group the State Department has designated a terrorist organization.

 

The State Department says Al-Ittihad al-Islami carried out a number of attacks against Ethiopian forces. It also was blamed for a series of bombings in 1996 and 1997

 

Although Al-Ittihad al-Islami is now largely broken up, Aweys remains on U.S. and United Nations watch lists of people with ties to al Qaeda.

 

"Certainly, of course, we're not going to work with somebody like that," McCormack said. "And of course, we would be troubled if this is an indicator of the direction that this group would go in."

 

McCormack said, however, that "there are a lot of shifting sands here, in terms of the leadership and the composition of this group."

 

"We're going to try to get a better picture of exactly what the relative weight of influence is within this group of various individuals and various factions," he said.

 

Various U.S. officials, who requested anonymity, said Aweys' appointment could point to a power struggle within the ICU between hard-line extremists and moderates within the group, which supported a cease-fire with Somalia's weak transitional government.

 

Aweys told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Monday that he would support only a government in Somalia based on Islam.

 

"Somalia is a Muslim nation and its people are also Muslim, 100 percent," Aweys was quoted by the AP as saying. "Therefore any government we agree on would be based on the holy Quran and the teachings of our Prophet Muhammad." (Full story)

 

Aweys' comments should come as no surprise. The Islamic Courts Union has for some time stated its desire for the establishment of Islamic law in Somalia.

 

Multiple dangers feared

U.N. officials are concerned the increased fighting in Somalia could create a new humanitarian crisis. The United States fears the country could become a haven for the al Qaeda terrorist network.

 

The State Department's most recent terrorism report said a small number of al Qaeda terrorists responsible for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania operated in Somalia.

 

Counterterrorism coordinator Henry Crumpton, in Senate testimony earlier this month, pointed to the problem of a "resilient, enduring and dangerous" al Qaeda cell that has operated in Somalia since the early 1990s.

 

The ICU has drawn comparisons to the Taliban, the fundamentalist militia that imposed a strict Islamic regime on Afghanistan and allowed al Qaeda to operate from its territory.

 

The Somali group denies harboring terrorists and has sent a letter to the United States saying it is not an enemy of America, but the U.S. has yet to respond.

 

Somalia's last functioning government collapsed in 1991. The U.N.-backed transitional government, based in the inland city of Baidoa, wields little power.

 

Last week the ICU reached a cease-fire with the interim government in which the two factions agree to work together. The two sides are to meet again July 15 in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.

 

Francois Lonseny Fall, the U.N. special representative for Somalia, warned last week that the rise of the ICU could trigger a regional war in the Horn of Africa.

 

Ethiopian troops have moved toward the Somali border since the ICU captured Mogadishu and could intervene if the militia were to move toward Baidoa.

 

Earlier this month, diplomats led by the United States and Norway held talks in which they urged dialogue between all Somali groups and pledged to help boost humanitarian aid to the country.

 

The International Contact Group on Somalia said it supported the U.N.-backed transitional government as the legitimate authority in Somalia but would reach out to other Somali actors to help build a functioning state.

 

Mogadishu was the scene of a 1993 battle between U.S. troops and a warlord militia that killed 18 Americans and hundreds of Somalis.

[General Duke]

US bans contact with Islamist leader in Somalia

 

Mon Jun 26, 2006 3:58pm ET

Politics News

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Monday ruled out any contact with the new leader of Somalia's powerful Islamists because he is on a U.S. terrorist list but left the door slightly open to dealing with the group later on.

 

Hard-line Muslim cleric Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who is also on a U.N. list of al Qaeda associates, was named head of the Council of the Islamic Courts over the weekend.

 

"Of course we are not going to work with somebody like that and of course we would be troubled if this (choice) is an indicator of the direction that this group would go in," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

 

 

Pressed whether this meant the United States would not deal with any member of the group in the future, he replied: "Let's wait, let's see what the collective leadership of this group does."

 

McCormack said there were a lot of "shifting sands" in terms of the leadership and composition of the Islamists and the United States was waiting to see what happened.

 

The Council of the Islamic Courts is a parliament for the Islamists, whose militias seized Somalia's capital Mogadishu from U.S.-backed warlords on June 5 after months of fighting that killed at least 350 people.

 

The moderate face of the courts, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, was named head of an executive committee in charge of the courts' administration, which will implement the parliament's decisions.

 

The rise of Aweys has alarmed the United States, which fears the Islamists want to establish Taliban-style rule in Somalia, despite repeated denials by Ahmed

[Duufaan]

this news will not change nothing. it will not give advantage one side or disadvantage the other side. Simply U.S is not either side. The U.S goverment chose to support moqdisho warlods, ignored the TNG and now more likely searching new warlods in moqdisho.

[General Duke]

^^You could be right when one looks back on the tactics of the Americans before. However the naming of Xasan Dahir and his associate Inda Cade, has lots the courts much support within and outside the country.

 

The US adminstrtion has never actually come against any active body in Somalia, Puntland, Somaliland, Mogadishu factions, warlords, JVA and so on...