Has Congress signed off on another mistaken Somalia firestorm? If you have not seen Blackhawk Down, you will benefit from a viewing. Maybe you will be able to explain how our Special Forces were sent out that day completely unprepared for a probable worst-case outcome. And maybe you will be able to figure out why Washington refused the requested cover of AC-130 gunships. (Take a look at the amazing capabilities of the AC-130 in the video below.)
And did you know that your government has authorized large numbers of Somali immigrants that are reportedly creating welfare system havoc in, by example, Portland, Maine. Foreign Policy writes readers that, judging by the activity of U.S. charter aircraft flying into and out of Somalia, the U.S. government is shuttling in many intelligence service personnel to wage a secret war in Somalia.
Not coincidentally, perhaps, American involvement in the region is again on the rise, as well. Last year, according to the U.N. group, the United States violated the international arms embargo on Somalia by dispatching American special operations forces in Russian M-17 helicopters to northern Somalia in support of operations by the intelligence service of Puntland, a breakaway Somali province.
(The U.N. Security Council in 1992 imposed an embargo “on all deliveries of weapons and military equipment to Somalia” The embargo was eased in March, 2013, allowing for the transfer of weapons, equipment or military advisors for the development of the federal government’s security forces. But the Somali government is required to inform the U.N. Security Council sanctions committee when it receives foreign military assistance.)
Two U.S. air-charter companies linked to American intelligence activities in Somalia have increased the number of clandestine flights to Mogadishu and the breakaway province of Puntland by as much as 25 percent last year.
Florida-based Prescott Support Co. and RAM Air Services, flew at least 84 civilian flights between August 2012 and March 2013. During the previous year, the two companies flew only 65 flights, “indicating an increase in United States support,” the U.N. report notes.
The flights — which have not been reported to the U.N. Security Council — suggest a further strengthening of American cooperation with Somalia’s National Intelligence Agency in Mogadishu and the Puntland Intelligence Service, which has been cooperating with U.S. counterterrorism operations for more than a decade.
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