generalspeaking

Domestic Terror Infiltrators

Somalia presents as an utterly collapsed state. There is no law and order in that country, but for a small portion that was ruled, inadequately and provisionally by a transitional government with no grip on the country's problems and incapable of acting decisively to oust the insurgent Islamist movement, the extreme element of Somalia's fanatical devotees to jihad.

With no order in the country and no official authority capable of instituting lawful order, it's little wonder the world's shipping industry has been thrown into a frenzy of fear over increasing piracy off the coast of Somalia. The United Nations and U.S.-sponsored and supported Somali Traditional Federal Government has been fighting a losing battle against the Islamist insurgency, and has recently relented in its battle with the Islamists.

An agreement was reached to halt the deadly attacks on government militias and the African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu, with the Somali President, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed agreeing to a cease-fire with the Hezbul Islam insurgent group. An imposition of sharia law is one of the immediate results of the cease-fire agreement, indicating complete capitulation to the Islamists.

No longer then will the UN-supported government enjoy the aspiration of attaining to the authority that Western supporters wished it to attain, in hopes of ensuring that fanatical Islam did not at last have a firm grip on the country. The international jihadists that had found welcome among the fundamentalist Islamists in the past will now be assured a warmer welcome than ever.

Reports from Britain have apprised that the intelligence community has knowledge that Somalians trained in terror camps in Somalia are intent on returning to Britain. The obvious conclusion is that their purpose in returning is to launch attacks in Britain. They have British citizenship, and have determined that those who recruited them to join Islamist jihadism have led them back to Islamic values.

A senior American intelligence source confirms that Somalis have vanished from the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Australia, along with some from the Caribbean who also appear to have left for Somalia. It appears clear to the American intelligence community that they now face a real danger of "domestic terror" through Somali jihadist infiltration.

As in Britain, and as in Canada, (albeit to a far lesser degree), the U.S. now faces the reality that young Somali American men who returned to their home country to battle the 'invading Ethiopians' are returning to North America as well-seasoned radicalized jihadists. The reason for their return clear, having been trained by groups linked to al-Qaeda.

The linkage between young Somalians with U.S. citizenship and the radical Islamist al-Shabaab group established in their regional conflict that has taken so many lives is inescapable. Two Islamic centres in Minnesota were originally identified as recruiting sources for young Somalians in the initial investigation, which has since spread to Boston, San Diego, Seattle, Columbus Ohio and Portland, Maine.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation feels certain that initial recruitment and radicalization occurred in the U.S., followed by the Somali youths travelling to training camps in Somalia and learning first-hand combat techniques as jihadis there, before returning to North America to plan attacks that have the potential to create violent upheavals spreading the message of al-Qaeda in the Maghreb.

As visible minorities and immigrants to another culture where they faced the reality of racism and lack of opportunities, resentment might very well have fed the initial impetus to broaden their horizons toward fanatical Islam to begin with. Two hundred thousand Somalis live in the United States, a plentiful demographic from which to draw Western-dispirited aspirants to jihad.

"Al-Qaeda's aim has always been to have people inside the U.S. with U.S. passports" according to a former adviser on counter-terrorism to the CIA. "Here you have a cadre of susceptible individuals and you have people ready to take advantage of that." A reality that has been found to repeat itself throughout Europe and North America.

Labels: Political Realities, Religion, Terrorism, World Crises

posted by Pieface @ Sunday, March 15, 2009