Tunisian Winds of Political Change

BLUF: The four prominent groups operating within Tunisian communities and the government include four main groups Hizb an Nahda (Ennahda), Hizb al-Tahrir, Tabligh wa Dawa, and the Tunisian Combatant Group. Under their majority control within the government basic human rights and freedoms continue to shrink as these groups move towards their goal of a caliphate.

The season has changed to autumn. So much for the Arab Spring, recent events make it look more like the Arab Fall. Since these events started in Tunisia we felt it best to start looking at events there.

The Tunisian Constitution has been written to indicate that, nationally, all religions and residents of the country shall have freedom of religion and basic human rights. In practice, this is hardly the case. In August of this year blogger Safiene Chaurabi and two of his friends were arrested one day after blogging their criticism of the government. Chaurabi was calling for protests against the government. One can only assume that a body that came to power by inciting protests first followed by violence that such a call would be seen as a rapidly growing threat.

Any rights during arrest and detention in Tunisia are whatever the police and the Department of State Security (DSS) decides you can have. There have been, and continue to be, violations of human rights in spite of the aforementioned constitutional guarantees. Reports of police torture are regularly printed in papers where there is freedom of the press.

"But, Tunisua is a democracy, they even have elections!" some say in disbelief. A 'democracy' is simply 'majority rules.' Whoever can convince the most people gets the most votes. Without a republic, a society under laws that provide for rules of conduct, a democracy is nothing more than mob rules and might makes right. Who are the majority groups voting and moving society there?

We find four Islamic groups that come in at the top of the list. These groups are Hizb an-Nahda, Hizb al-Tahrir, Tabligh wa Dawa, and the Tunisian Combatant Group.

Hizb an-Nahda, also found as Ennahda, is the praimary (largest) group in Tunisia. It uses the koran and hadith as "an anchor for political thought and practice," according to its founder Rached Ghannouchi. The group has a record of using violent means to achieve its goals. This group is Salafist.

Some reports indicate thqat the group does not operate within Tunisia, but we are not entirely convinced. The Foundry, the blog of The Heritage Foundation, indicates that the group uses its moderate political position to push forward Gannouchi's current moderate voice. Sadly, it seems that in the violence of the Arab Spring this group stepped in with other Salafist groups to gain the majority. We believe that, as the moderate face of political islam in Tunisia the West would have an excuse to turn away and ignore reports and allegations of governmental abuse of prisoners. There are numerous reports regularly about the police and officers of the Tunisian Department of State Security torturing prisoners, failing to quickly alert the judiicary system that a person has been arressted and is awaiting trial. This delay would seem to allow for recovering from some of these alleged injuries.

 Hizb al-Tahrir, the Islamic Liberation Party, is the second largest islamic group to gain political recognition in Tunisia.. This group shares the political view of the Hizbul-Tahrir in Palestine and has until recently been viewed in Tunisia as a hard-line group.  The group has allegedly renounced violence in Tunisia.  This group shares its name with other pro-caliphate groups in 40 other countries.The stated operational plan, simplified, is
1) Establish a community base.
2) Build supportand spread thei political opinion throughout their community base.
3) Once the localities are in line with the group's view, move to take over the country.

Tabligh wa Dawa is a society for spreading the faith. That is what the title means, spreading the faith. This group pops up in nations around the world. Even the State Department reports that many of its members have been caught in terrorist groups world wide and conducting terrorist operations. The group had originated in Pakistan where it gained positions of prominence within that nation's primary  military intelligence group, Inter-Services Intelligence, ISI. Reports over the past several years show that the ISI has been operationally invovled with terrorists in Afghanistan.

That brings us to another salafist group, the Tunisian Combatant Group. The TCG is based upon the Libyan based Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, SGPC. SGPC splintered off from the group that overthrew the Alferian government. The TCG was formed in 2000 and has well established connections withn al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). TCG is known to operate regionally, this includes Afghanistan, Italy, and Belgium. The Long War Journal reports that high level political members within the Tunisian Ennahda majority have been recorded conspiring to take full control of Tunisia.

 Are we here at MSMII the only ones to recognize the Barbary Coast membership?

In Tunisia we are seeing several globally operating terrorist groups gaining "legitimate" control through democracy. Remeber your early government classes, please, a democracy without societal safeguarding laws is mob rules; whereas a republic has those laws and is called a democratic republic, which is what the United States is. Based on where Obama has "helped" power has gone steadily into the hands of groups using extreme violence to gain control of the masses.

NOTE: This post was completed via iPod due to technical difficulties. In text citings were not possible. Those sites used are listed below

www.almanac.afpc.org
www.globalsecurity.org
www.blog.heritage.org
www.barenakedislam.com
www.longwarjournal.org
www.wikipedia.org
 

UN Report on Child Soldiers

Bottom Line Up Front

There is now a report on the recruitment and use of child soldiers. It comes out while the International Criminal Court (a brand new offshoot of the UN) seeks to prove its legitimacy with prosecuting a warlord for his use of child soldiers. What is NOT stated overtly in the article is that most of the groups listed are primarily Islamic groups seeking to establish sharia law. Also, the states listed are standing UN members.

UN Report: Use of Child Soldiers Still Widespread in 2010/2011

As a UN list proves, children are still being recruited and used in warfare while schools are repeatedly being attacked and closed with a UN official saying this was "another tragic year" for the world's youngsters.

New additions to the list include the Philippines' Moro secessionist movement in the south, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which was among the 61 rebel groups that targeted children recruitment in the 22 countries the report focuses on. Other groups such as the al-Shabab militia in Somalia, and the Afghan National Police in Afghanistan are also listed.

In Afghanistan however, the Government recently agreed to release children from the Afghan national security forces and to put in place more efficient age verification measures to prevent under-age recruitment.

The report also reveals that the UN Security Council also found the New People's Army and the Abu Sayyaf Group of being actively engaged in recruiting children as fighters.

As details of the list emerged however, the MILF repeatedly denied the recruitment of child warriors, with member Muhammad Ameen insisting his group and its military wing, the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF), do not participate in the recruitment of children and have even prohibited it.

As the use of child soldiers is still widespread, In June, the Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution which expended the criteria for listing parties to conflict in the Secretary-General's annual report, including parties who attack schools and hospitals.

The resolution strictly prohibits the "recruitment and use of children, killing and maiming, rape and other sexual violence, attacks on schools and/or hospitals."

"The promise of this resolution is very real. During my visits to conflict areas, I have personally seen the devastation -- schools completely destroyed, bombed or burnt to the ground. Attacks on hospitals are two-fold atrocities. Not only do they kill and wound girls and boys, but they leave children without access to treatment," said Radhika Coomaraswamy, the Special Representative of the Secretary General for children and armed conflict.

The annual report finds that out of 22 conflicts that were monitored, attacks against schools and hospitals were reported in at least 15, with reports of damage, destruction and closing of schools appearing to be a pattern.

 "The infrastructure of schools have been physically destroyed by armed actors, and students and educational personnel have been attacked, threatened or intimidated," the report states.

"In some situations, girls and girls' schools have been specifically targeted. The use of schools by armed elements has, in certain circumstances, compromised the civilian nature of schools and put students at risk."

Other entries on the list include Yemeni groups pro-Government tribal militia and al-Houthi rebels, both for recruiting and using child soldiers and the Iraqi groups the Islamic State of Iraq, and Al-Qaida in Iraq, including its armed youth wing known as the Birds of Paradise.

The report examined armed conflicts last year in Afghanistan, Burundi, the Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, Colombia, Côte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Haiti, India, Iraq, Lebanon, Myanmar, Nepal, the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel, Pakistan, Philippines, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, southern Thailand, Uganda and Yemen.

http://uk.ibtimes.com/articles/213572/20110914/un-report-use-of-child-soldiers-still-widespread-in-2010-2011.htm

Somali Test Bombers

Do you recall last week when three Somalis tried to get a fake bomb into the terminal? I do. I thought we were busy savign Somalis in Somalia? Why are they trying to bomb us here? Ongoing investigation or not, call your elected perpetrators, er representatives and DEMAND that the US STOP sending aid dollars into Somalia. I am telling you, folks, nothing good is going to come out of helping Somalia. We went there under Clintonian efforts to save the people during a famine (sound familiar?) then Black Hawk Down happened. In 2007 two aid planes were shot down. Just recently it has been "revealed" that aid is being stolen, rerouted, and extorted from those who need it most. This is Somalia! This is how they say thank you!

Phoenix TSA Bomb ‘Probe’ Confounds

By John Guzzon
Modern Times Magazine
Aug. 17, 2011 — When a Somali immigrant was stopped by TSA agents last week at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport for allegedly carrying a fake bomb onto a plane, no one really seemed to notice.
Sure, it was reported by all the usual sources, but because it is an ongoing investigation, law enforcement — specifically the FBI — is not providing many details. The only three people that had anything to do with the ‘fake bomb’  — as far as the public knows — are in jail. The only information available for public consumption is a press release from the FBI announcing a complaint had been filed and the complaint itself.
The scant evidence — Sheriff’s Office mugshots and the complaint — leaves a wide range of options within which to speculate on what happened. But make no mistake, this might be one of the most important homeland security events since 2001.
But then again, it could be just someone carrying something that authorities thought was  bomb although it was an innocent mistake.
See what I mean?
Luwiza Laku Daman, the Somali woman who was taken into custody by TSA and Phoenix Police for trying to get through security with what looked like a bomb, told law enforcement she came to Phoenix from Des Moines, Iowa, for a wedding and that she was indirectly given a package from a Somali living in Phoenix. She was asked by a friend to take the package to a Somali man living in DesMoines. Virtually all of the other details of Daman’s initial story have changed, although in the complaint it is acknowledged that language barriers between law enforcement and the suspects made interrogations difficult.
But the inconsistencies don’t really seem to amount to much. Daman, who has been in the U.S. for about four months, initially said she was staying with one woman, but that person said she stayed with another woman. The details of how she got the package have changed — but just how she got it. One version of the story says “Jaffa” who eventually was discovered to be Shullu Gorado of West Phoenix gave it to another woman at her house. Another story says he gave it to same woman at another person’s home.
He was sending some “halva” a middle-eastern confection, to friends in Iowa. The halva, according to police, was the simulated explosive.
Another man, Asa Shani, says he found a cellular phone in Phoenix and was hoping Daman would take it to his brother in Des Moines. It was taped to the top of the box of halva. He even took investigators out to his car where they inspected the tape he used.
That, according to investigators, was the simulated detonator.
Now, that is the story the suspects told. As every red-blooded American knows from the cop shows, the stories might just be a tale, or it may be the truth.
The federal complain charges the three suspects with violation of Title 18 — which makes it illegal to transmit a fake bomb through security at an airport. Even if the simualted exposive device turns out to be some sugar and flour in a box with a phone taped on it. The thing didn’t even have any wires.
Special Agent Benjamin Oesterle wrote in the complaint that it was believed that the actions of Daman, Gorado and Shani could have been to probe airport security to find out how to exploit it and TSA’s response. But the fact is, if that is happening, who is financing them and where will they strike next? If some terror group is responsible for probing two airports thousands of miles apart within the same few days, isn’t that a pretty big threat?
But then again, it might just be a few security guards and cops getting a little too paranoid about a box of dessert and a cell phone.
Wierd.John Guzzon is editor of Modern Times Magazine

Somali Aid Stolen

BLUF

Millions of people are starving to death. Food and money has been, and continues to be, sent into Somalia. I presume into the Mogadishu port facility. In spite of alleged rigorous monitoring and control by the UN WFP up to half of the food aid that comes in ends up being stolen.

My opinion is that the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) is the largest money making scheme in history. Bernie Madoff could not have had a better plan. It is time for the world to require Somalia to stand up as its own country. Push the bird out of the nest.

BACKGROUND

After the end of the Siad Barre bloody and violent regime fell, there was a famine. In 1992 the UN and the US went into Somalia under Operation Restore Hope, although, I seriously doubt there was any real hope.  The purpose for being there was to ensure the safety of food and aid going to the people of Somalia. The world sends in help and gets thanked with RPGs, machine guns, and grenades.

Fast forward 15 years, and nothing has gotten any better. In 2007 muslim fighters for al-Shabaab shot down two aid planes, one was incapacitated the other spread over two miles of desolate Somali ground. During the 15 year spread the TFG was established, spent most of its infancy living and “ruling” (ha!) from Kenya, and was forced (yes, kicked out of Kenya forcibly) to move into  Somalia to rule. Since then, they have been corrupt, weak, backstabbing, in-fighting, nepotistic opportunists.

Now, 2011, nearly 20 years after the world’s last attempt at helping Somalia and its people, nothing is better and nothing has changed. The World Food Program (WFP) now acknowledges that there has been some theft of aid. They have been investigating this for two months. I have been watching this go on for years via the internet and newspapers.

As officials claimed and news reports persisted the UN could no longer deny that its aid was being stolen.  It appears that the UN found its WFP supplies being sold at Bakara Market. This also happens to be one of the largest open air gun and goat markets in the region. At one of the sites for stolen food aid, about a dozen corrugated iron sheds are stacked with sacks. Outside, women sell food from open 110-pound (50-kilogram) sacks, and traders load the food onto carts or vehicles under the indifferent eyes of local officials.

It turns out that at the TFG run Baidoa Camp, a refugee camp located outside of Mogadishu, the management of the “camp” required a 50% kickback of supplies given by the WFP. If the kickback was questioned or sneered at in any way that person and his family was ejected from the camp, and this was probably not done in a sweet or gentle manner. As horrific as the camps are, they are preferred over the war zone that is Mogadishu.

Working in the region giving aid is dangerous. There are numerous ways to be killed for simply having food to give out. WFP has had 14 employees killed in Somalia since 2008. As a result of these and earlier deaths (including the machine gun execution of all members of a WFP convoy in mid 2007) the UN is calling for greater steps and assurances of security from the TFG and its allied organizations, transitional federal institutions (TFI). Aid will be allotted based on the TFI achieving certain benchmarks of security, but what those are is unclear at this time.

ASSESSMENT

Theft of aid will continue. Violence will continue to strangle efforts to aid the people of Somalia. Until the realization is made that the people and government of Somalia have to stand up and behave in a civilized manner, nothing is going to change. As a result, and as harsh as this sounds, all aid to Somalia needs to stop. The UN has said that there are benchmarks to be reached in order to get more aid, and I agree with this, in principle. If Somalia can meet certain benchmarks of civility, security, and common good they can receive assistance. But they have to stand up and calmly walk to the help. We should no longer bring it to them so they can kill us for it.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/aug/15/un-says-food-aid-stolen-from-famished/

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jHWXfuZeqBsx7UP1Bjegr1JFKHcw?docId=CNG.1f469d987692eedad6d66fb6bb381964.531

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_18684679?nclick_check=1

Child Soldiers In Somalia

Reports coming from the Horn of Africa indicate that al-Shabaab, one of the more influentially destructive forces to humanity in the region, has long been taking children and using them as soldiers. The name “al-Shabaab” is Arabic for “The Youth”. Amnesty International, other human rights groups, and I are finally being heard in this disgusting act of war on the most innocent of the world, its children.

Let’s put the point of Youth into perspective for the Western World readers. Somalia has an average life expectancy of 48 years for males. This is nothing new. The environment is harsh and unforgiving. Life there is also hard and unforgiving. If you are not harder than the environment, you die. Again, the average life span in Somalia is 48 years. What is middle age in this culture? Mathematically it comes out to be 24. In Western cultures this is just out of college and still in the phase of heavy drinking every weekend. By age 24, in most parts of Africa, children have been tending the herd, minding the store, and hunting to help support their brothers and sisters and mother and father. They do not have anything that we could really call a childhood.

Al-Shabaab started off as the militant wing of the Islamic Courts Union in Somalia during the ICU reign in 2006 and into 2007. ICU left and al-Shabaab remained. They said from the start that they would fight to the death. Children were used as disposable items if they did not meet the standards set for them. This use of children is despicable, illegal, and utterly disgusting.

It is not just in Somalia. Myanmar, the country formerly known as Burma, has its share of child soldiers, also. Chad has only just put together a plan to demobilize its child soldiers. The Philippines just passed a bill against it after muslims rebels talked with the UN about weaning their child soldiers from war. Yemen uses child soldiers regularly.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/08/11/Al-Shabaab-conscripting-child-soldiers/UPI-52341313077780/

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/08/11/myanmar.child.soldier/