EU set to back strikes on Somali pirate lairs 23/03/2012   (IG)

The European Union will likely approve plans Friday to strike Somali pirate equipment on beaches, widening the scope of its naval operations four years into a mission to protect shipping.Germany had voiced reservations about plans to allow EU warships to fire at trucks, supplies, boats and fuel stowed on the coast of Somalia, but a minister indicated Thursday that Berlin would now back the plans.
"I expect that we will find a consensus," German deputy defence minister Christian Schmidt told reporters on arrival for a meeting of EU defence ministers in Brussels.The decision is expected to be taken when EU foreign ministers meet Friday, one day after the defence chiefs, EU officials said.

The expanded mandate, however, will have to be submitted to the German parliament for approval, he added.The ministers will also formally approve the extension of the EU mission, Operation Atalanta, until December 2014.EU officials have stressed that the new mandate would not call for the deployment of troops on the ground in Somalia.

Nine EU naval ships are currently operating off the Horn of Africa, escorting vessels carrying humanitarian aid to Somalia and policing the key shipping route to thwart pirate attacks.

Source: AFP

23.03.2012:

Pirate attacks on merchant vessels in Africa pose a threat with ripple effects for U.S. homeland security and must be tackled as such, security industry experts say.

The industry's experts want specialist teams from commercial security firms deployed on every ship that sails in the danger zone in east Africa, where most recent piracy incidents have taken place.

"Success at sea by the early Somali pirates has attracted major organized-crime syndicates, Muslim extremists and a more robust and sophisticated confederacy of operatives," Jim Jorrie, chief executive officer of ESPADA marine services argued in the March 2012 issue of Homeland Security Today magazine.

"While this is all happening half a world away, it has put more operating cash in the hands of extremists, including al-Qaida -- and that should be of no small concern for us in the United States," Jorrie said.

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2012/03/19/African-piracy-a-threat-to-US-security/UPI-58831332187193/#ixzz1pb86qFaohttp://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2012/03/19/African-piracy-a-threat-to-US-security/UPI-58831332187193/?spt=hs&or=si

New post on Sahel Blog

Africa News Roundup: Mauritania in Mali, Suicide Attack in Mogadishu, Museveni Impeachment Attempt, South Sudan Violence, and More by Alex Thurston

Mauritania's army continues to hunt members of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) inside Mali, but Mauritania's government denies supporting the Tuareg rebellion in the region.

On Wednesday, a suicide attack occurred at the presidential palace in Mogadishu, Somalia's capital. The rebel movement al Shabab has claimed responsibility. Such events, in my view, boost the predictions of analysts who said that al Shabab's withdrawal from Mogadishu would change the nature of the conflict there, rather than ending it.

The US military says that 2011 saw a major increase in bomb attacks in Nigeria, Kenya, and Somalia.

Ethiopian troops are still preparing to hand over areas in Somalia to African Union troops.

The administration of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni says an impeachment bid against the president has little chance of success.

The BBC re-examines Uganda's role in Somalia.

The LA Times looks at ethnic violence in South Sudan. Alan Boswell, meanwhile, writes that the government's army - the Sudan People's Liberation Army or SPLA - is "part of the problem."

Here in Jonglei state, where tit-for-tat raids have billowed into a full-scale internal war between the Murle and Lou Nuer tribes, South Sudan's army has become part of the problem, despite the $270 million in American aid it's received since a 2005 U.S.-brokered peace deal led last year to the creation of the country.

A broad group of U.S. activists who forged close ties with the South Sudanese rebel movement spurred that deal to end Sudan's decades-long civil war. They included churches from then-President George W. Bush's hometown of Midland, Texas, the Congressional Black Caucus and celebrities such as actor George Clooney.

The violence, and the role of the South Sudanese military in it, points out the difficulty of a legacy in which the U.S. and influential activists remain supporters of a government that often lies at the heart of the problem. Even with its poor human rights record, South Sudan continues to be the darling of its committed backers.

New post on al-Wasat - الوسط

The End of a Romance? Omar Hammami’s Relationship with Somalia’s Al-Shabab by Ibn Siqilli

-Christopher Anzalone (McGill University)

In a 1:10-minute video posted on YouTube on March 16, Omar Hammami, until now the most prominent non-Somali foreign member of the Somali insurgent-jihadi movement Harakat al-Shabab al-Mujahideen (Movement of the Warrior-Youth; Al-Shabab/Al-Shabaab), issued an "urgentmessage (sic)" to "whoever it [the message] may reach among the Muslims" in which he said that he feared for his life following a dispute with Al-Shabab following "differences" over matters of "shari'a and strategy."   Sitting in front of the black-and-white flag emblazoned with the Muslim testament of faith (shahada) that Al-Shabab uses, Hammami, who is referred to in transnational Sunni jihadi (hereafter "jihadi") circles as "Abu Mansur al-Amriki [the American]," does not elaborate on the nature of his dispute with Al-Shabab or whether the dispute was with the movement's leadership generally or specific members of the insurgent leadership cadre, in which they are also reportedly divisions and disputes over several issues including the response to the famine threatening the Horn of Africa and local or glocal versus full-fledged transnational militancy. The room appears to be the same or similar one in a photograph of Hammami that was posted to jihadi Internet forums in December 2011, though it is impossible to tell for sure.

The release of this video from the American citizen who is perhaps most famous for his terrible hip hop songs such as "Send Me a Cruise" and "Blow by Blow" has caused considerable consternation among segments of the cyber jihadi community.  The dispute appears to be genuine has become stronger with the release of multiple messages via Al-Shabab's official or affiliated media outlets earlier today.  Given the potential importance of this news, it is worth reviewing Hammami's lengthy relationship with Al-Shabab.

Hammami (b. 1984), a native of Daphne, Alabama and son of a Syrian Muslim father and a Protestant Christian American mother, traveled to Somalia in late November 2006 from Egypt.  According to his former best friend Bernie Culveyhouse, he likely traveled to the East African country because of a desire to aid the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), an umbrella movement that, in 2006, brought the first real semblance of law and order to civil war-torn Somalia  since the fall of dictator Siyaad Barre in 1991.  It is believed that Hammami joined Al-Shabab, which formed part of the UIC's military wing.  In 2007, wearing a kuffiya scarf over his face and only showing his eyes, he was interviewed by Al-Jazeera Arabic and made an appeal to Americans to heed the example of Somalia.

Hammami became most well known, however, following his starring role in Ambush at Bardale, a 31-minute video released in late March 2009.  The video, produced by Al-Shabab's media department, then simply referred to as such, documents an ambush by insurgents led by Hammami against an Ethiopian military convoy near the city of Baidoa, capital of the Bay region, in western Somalia in early August 2008.  In the video Hammami, speaking in English, lectures a group of Al-Shabab fighters on hadith, the Qur'an, and strategic and ideological matters concerning the movement's "jihad" and standing in "ribat," or guardianship over Muslim lands.  Ambush at Bardale also includes Hammami's first two hip hop songs, "Blow by Blow" and "Hum Hum," which feature him and a second unidentified English speaker. Hammami later addresses the camera in Arabic.

Despite his very public persona in the news media, particularly in North America, Hammami's exact position and role in Al-Shabab has largely been the subject of speculation.  According to the U.S. Department of the Treasury's designation of him as an international terrorist, Hammami is (or was) a "military tactician, recruitment strategist, and financial manager" for Al-Shabab.  The designation also accuses him of being involved in the planning of an October 2008 suicide attack in Puntland carried out by U.S. citizen and Al-Shabab fighter Shirwa Ahmed.  Open source material with regard to his role, particularly insurgent primary sources, is generally ambiguous.  In the three official Al-Shabab videos that he's appeared in, he has been referred to as "shaykh" and "the brother (al-akh)."  The first title is traditionally an honorific title describing either a societal or religious leader though jihadi groups use the term so frequently that the term's meaning is often of limited use with regards to determining an individual's specific role.  The second is a term of endearment used by Muslims generally to describe a fellow male Muslim.  In the statement reporting the Hammami-led ambush of Ethiopian forces at Bardale, the Daphne native was referred to as a "field commander" (al-qa'id al-maydani).  His exact role, if any, in the upper echelons of Al-Shabab's leadership cadre is unclear, at least in open source materials.

In January 2008 the Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF), a shadowy jihadi media outlet and distribution network that has for years facilitated the distribution of Al-Shabab's statements and other media material online, released a 5-page essay penned by Hammami and addressed to "the mujahideen in particular and the Muslims in general."  In the essay, he criticized the UIC and discussed the differences between it and Al-Shabab.  Whereas the former restricted itself to the "boundaries placed by the Taaghoot [Taghut; tyrant-rulers]," Al-Shabab had "a global goal" that included the formation of a jihadi caliphate, a transnational state, in "all parts of the world."  Hammami criticized the UIC's poor treatment of foreign fighters, the "muhajireen" (emigrants) who traveled to aid their Somali Muslim brethren.  Toward the end of his essay, the American discusses Al-Shabab's purported program or "path" (Minhaj).  How definitive in terms of guidance his discussion of the movement's program was, however, is unclear.  Al-Shabab's Somali leaders and more important non-Somali foreign leaders and affiliated Al-Qa'ida Central operatives, such as the late Saleh 'Ali Saleh al-Nabhan and Fazul 'Abdullah Muhammad, were likely more influential on the formation of the movement's ideology.  If continuous reports about purported internal divisions are true, Al-Shabab's leaders are divided on a number of issues, though this cleavages have not yet precipitated the actual break-up of the movement.  Currently Al-Shabab has a leadership cadre that includes a number of prominent Somali preacher-ideologues, including some who have lived in diaspora communities such as Fu'ad Muhammad Khalaf and 'Abd al-Qadir Mu'min.  Together with political leaders such as the movement's amir Ahmed Godane, spokesman 'Ali Mahamoud Rage ('Ali Dheere), Robow, and Aweys, these individuals have likely been more influential over the construction of Al-Shabab's ideology as a movement than Hammami.

Hammami has appeared a number of times at public Al-Shabab functions including a celebration for the children of the movement's "martyrs" in 2009 or 2010.  His most high profile appearance was at a lengthy conference entitled "We are All Usama" held by Al-Shabab in the Lower Shabelle region south of Mogadishu in mid May 2011 following the killing of Al-Qa'ida Central founder-leader Usama bin Laden by U.S. forces earlier that month in Pakistan.

In photographs released by Al-Shabab and affiliated/sympathetic media outlets, Hammami was pictured alongside a number of senior Al-Shabab leaders including Rahanweyn leader Mukhtar "Abu Mansur" Robow, Hasan Dahir Aweys, Lower Shaballe governor Muhammad Abu 'Abdullah, preachers 'Abd al-Qadir Mu'min and Fu'ad Muhammad Khalaf "Shongole," and Banaadir governor Muhammad Hasan 'Umar Abu 'Abd al-Rahman.  In Ambush at Bardale Hammami also appeared alongside Robow planning the ambush against Ethiopian forces.  In that footage and in photographs and video footage from the conference dedicated to Bin Laden.two appeared quite friendly with one another.

The amount of media attention that Hammami has attracted is likely disproportionate to his actual role and importance to Al-Shabab.  This is not to say that he was not important to the movement's recruitment efforts, particularly among English-speakers.  It is interesting to note that Al-Shabab had already recruited dozens of mostly Somali youth in the U.S., Canada, and Britain before its public video unveiling of Hammami in Ambush at Bardale, though this fact does not discount the possibility/likelihood that he was involved prior in an advisory role.

Hammami, as mentioned previously, has appeared in three official video releases produced by Al-Shabab's media wing, Ambush at Bardale, the September 2009-release Labbayk Ya Usama, and an April 2010 release about a celebration held for children of killed insurgents.  In Labbayk Ya Usama Hammami's makes a brief non-speaking appearance and is shown observing and directing training of Al-Shabab "special forces" and meeting with other Al-Shabab commanders.  He speaks at the celebration for the children of the "martyrs," though the children seem more interested in their toys and food, alongside 'Ali Rage.  Hammami's hip hop songs, both those released independently (or at least unbranded) of Al-Shabab's media department and the two featured in Ambush at Bardale, were branded as being from "Ghaba Productions."  His most recent lecture, "Lessons Learned," appeared on YouTube and the Ansar al-Mujahideen English jihadi Internet forum on October 7, 2011 and was subsequently released on other web sites including the predominantly Somali language al-Qimma al-Islamiyya (Islamic Summit) forum.  The latter link was later not working and was possibly removed by forum administrators.  In November, the lecture was translated from English into Arabic by the al-Masada (Place of Lions) Media Foundation, the media office of the al-Shumukh al-Islam (Islamic pride/glory) Internet forum.  Comparisons made by some of Hammami with Anwar al-'Awlaqi are frankly absurd.  Unlike Hammami, al-'Awlaqi had some semblance of religious legitimacy, at least prior to his public embrace of Al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and militancy.  While Hammami was able to speak a caricatured youth slang, it is unlikely that his religious arguments for jihad or even his personal life story carried the same authoritativeness and weight of al-'Awlaqi's, since the latter gave up a successful public life and leadership role in the U.S. in order to embrace "true Islam," at least according to the American-Yemeni preacher's self-image and the image constructed by AQAP and other jihadis.

The open question is why would Hammami make such a public break with Al-Shabab now?  Speculation in some media coverage and on social media networks, primarily Twitter, has been that the dispute may be related to the movement's formalizing of its affiliation with Al-Qa'ida Central (AQC) in early February.  This is certainly a possibility.  Praising the charismatic persona of Bin Laden is still a step below being an actual member of an AQC affiliated movement or group, which perhaps Hammami finds undesirable, if only for reasons of personal safety particularly after the U.S. government's targeted killing of Anwar al-'Awlaqi on September 30 of last year in Yemen.  Given Al-Shabab's public embrace of the decision to formally affiliate with AQC, demonstrated by a number of high profile public celebrations in regions under insurgent control that have been attended by many but not all of its senior leadership (at least based on insurgent photographs), the reverse seems unlikely, that is that Hammami broke with Al-Shabab because he supported the affiliation while insurgent leaders opposed it.  The possibility that some Al-Shabab leaders are not as supportive of the affiliation remains.  Robow and Aweys, for example, were not in photographs of insurgent-organized public celebrations in Lower Shabelle and other regions and they have only just begun to reappear in insurgent-affiliated media following the announcement by Godane and Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri.  The exact reasons for this, it should be noted, are unclear. It is possible that the break between Hammami and Al-Shabab's leadership, if true, is unrelated to the affiliation and concerns other issues, such as the insurgent movement's application of its particularly harsh and philistine interpretation of shari'a.  Al-Shabab has actively promoted its own version of law and order, a harsh one for sure, and has attempted to establish its control over local shari'a courts through its Office of the Judiciary, which has held "training sessions" for judges from all the regions under insurgent control.

Others suggest that the break may be related to suspicions by Al-Shabab's domestic leadership with regard to "foreign fighters."  It is important to remember that there are several different types of such fighters in insurgent ranks.  First, there are those, likely the smallest number, who, like Hammami, are non-Somalis.  This group includes Arabs, South Asians or those of South Asian descent, possibly from Horn of Africa countries, Americans, and Europeans.  Second, there are ethnic Somalis from the diaspora.  Third, there are non-Somalis from in and around the Horn of Africa.  Available evidence, including from insurgent media, is that this group remains welcome by Al-Shabab's leadership and indeed is increasingly the target of insurgent recruitment efforts.  This includes the affiliation of Ahmad Iman 'Ali and the Muslim Youth Center in Kenya and the appearance of Swahili-speaking Al-Shabab fighters in insurgent videos, particularly since the November 2010 release of Message to the Umma: And Inspire the Believers.

Al-Shabab today, in a series of Tweets via its Arabic and English-language Twitter accounts and in an official statement released on jihadi Internet forums, denies that Hammami's life is endanger and says that he still enjoys the "benefits of brotherhood" with the "mujahideen."  The affair will remain purely the subject of speculation until more concrete information emerges

http://www.namnewsnetwork.org/v2/wire.php?reg=30+&+pg=1

29.01.2012 GHANA POLICE SERVICE ANNOUNCES RECRUITMENT EXAMINATION
ACCRA, Jan. 29, (NNN-GNA):The Human Resource Directorate of the Ghana Police Service has announced that artisan applicants in the current recruitment exercise will be undertaking their physical body screening, practical ...

http://www.namnewsnetwork.org/v2/wire.php?reg=30+&+pg=1

26.01.2012 Navy Seals Rescue Aid Workers Held in Nation

US commandos swooped into lawless Somalia and rescued two Western aid workers held for three months by armed pirates in a daring pre-dawn raid approved by President Barack Obama.

In a rare US incursion into Somalia, elite Navy SEALs flying at least six military helicopters flew in to pluck an American, Jessica Buchanan, and Dane Poul Thisted to safety in a firefight that left all nine kidnappers dead.

Obama, who had been updated regularly about the kidnapping by his top defense staff, gave the green light late on Monday night for the risky operation on learning that 32-year-old Buchanan's health was in danger.

"Jessica's health was failing," Vice President Joe Biden said on ABC's Good Morning America show. "They concluded they should go at this time. The president gave the go."

The European Union is weighing expanding its anti-piracy operation off the Horn of Africa to include targeting equipment stored on Somali beaches, Germany said Friday

03.Jan 2012 . Taiwan Mulls Armed Guards on Board Ships to Deter Pirates. 201201030919

Taiwan is considering a plan to place armed guards on board local ships that sail in pirate-infested waters, especially off Somalia, officials and media said Tuesday. "The proposal has been under evaluation, but details of how it can be done have not been finalised," an official at the transportation ministry told AFP, declining to give his name. Industry officials said the proposed measures would not be implemented until an amendment to the law governing guns and firearms that bars the employment of armed guards on board local vessels.

02.Jan.2011 http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/

Reduced Risk of Pirate Attacks to Cut Freight Costs

Freight costs and insurance premiums are expected to drop later this year if the decreasing risk of pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden is sustained.

The reduction in both people held captive for ransom and pirate attacks has been attributed to concerted effort by the international community to make the Indian Ocean safe.

19 December, 2011. http://www.thecgpcs.org/about.do?action=news

EU NAVFOR Escorts a Convoy of Humanitarian Aid Ships into Somalia: The Spanish auxiliary oiler and replenishment ship, the SPS PATINO, Flagship of the EU NAVFOR, with the Force Commander, Captain Jorge Manso Revilla embarked, has recently com. . .

19 December, 2011. http://www.thecgpcs.org/about.do?action=news

Australia to Host Counter-Piracy Conference in 2012

9 December, 2011. http://www.thecgpcs.org/about.do?action=news

Interview with Henk Swarttouw, Former Chairman of the CGPCS

This interview was first published in the Global Observatory (http://www.theglobalobservatory.org). Reprinted with permission.] Henk Swarttouw served as the 10th plenary session Chairman of the ...

8 December, 2011. http://www.thecgpcs.org/about.do?action=news

IMO Assembly Adopts Resolution on Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships. [Source: IMO] The 27th Assembly of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) adopted various resolutions including a resolution urging Governments to continue their efforts to combat piracy a ...

1 December, 2011. http://www.thecgpcs.org/about.do?action=news

UNODC to Host a Conference on Illicit Financial Flows related to Piracy off the ...

29 November, 2011. http://www.thecgpcs.org/about.do?action=news

IMO Award for Exceptional Bravery at Sea 2011 Goes to Hijacked Ship Master Capta ...

Source: IMO (http://www.imo.org/MediaCentre/PressBriefings/Pages/60-bravery-2011.aspx)] Captain Seog Hae-gyun of the Republic of Korea, Master of the chemical tanker Samho Jewelry, has been pre ...

29 November, 2011. http://www.thecgpcs.org/about.do?action=news

UNSC Extends Authorization to Use "All Necessary Means" to Combat Piracy in Coop ... [Source: UN Press Release (http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2011/sc10454.doc.htm)] Condemning and deploring all acts of piracy and armed robbery against vessels in the waters off the coast of So ...

28 November, 2011. http://www.thecgpcs.org/about.do?action=news

The 10th Plenary Session of the CGPCS Ends with Fruitful Discussions

November 17, 2011, the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS) held its 10th Plenary Meeting under the chairmanship of the Netherlands. The CGPCS participants gathered to check on ...

22 November, 2011. http://www.thecgpcs.org/about.do?action=news

International Counter Piracy Collaboration Helps NATO to Foil Pirates

Source: Operation Ocean Shield (http://www.manw.nato.int/)] On November 12, 2011, a successful operation between a NATO warship and a Japanese maritime patrol aircraft resulted in the location a ...