Exclusive: U.S. discloses secret Somalia military presence, up to 120 troops

[Jesus Malverde]

Source: Reuters

U.S. military advisors have secretly operated in Somalia since around 2007 and Washington plans to deepen its security assistance to help the country fend off threats by Islamist militant group al Shabaab, U.S. officials said.

The comments are the first detailed public acknowledgement of a U.S. military presence in Somalia dating back since the U.S. administration of George W. Bush and add to other signs of a deepening U.S. commitment to Somalia's government, which the Obama administration recognized last year.

The deployments, consisting of up to 120 troops on the ground, go beyond the Pentagon's January announcement that it had sent a handful of advisors in October. That was seen at the time as the first assignment of U.S. troops to Somalia since 1993 when two U.S. helicopters were shot down and 18 American troops killed in the "Black Hawk Down" disaster.

The plans to further expand U.S. military assistance coincide with increasing efforts by the Somali government and African Union peacekeepers to counter a bloody seven-year insurgent campaign by the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab to impose strict Islamic law inside Somalia.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/02/us-usa-somalia-idUSKBN0F72A820140702

[arcane1]

1. Somalia has reserves of several natural resources,

including uranium, iron ore, tin, gypsum, bauxite, copper, salt and natural gas. The CIA reports that there are 5.663 billion cu m of proven natural gas reserves.
...
In the late 1960s, UN geologists also discovered major uranium deposits and other rare mineral reserves in Somalia. The find was the largest of its kind, with industry experts estimating that the amount of the deposits could amount to over 25% of the world's then known uranium reserves of 800,000 tons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somalia#Economy

[MisterP]

2. "no boots on the ground! aaawwwwwk!" nt

[jakeXT]

3. 50000 Ethiopian soldiers as proxies not enough?

WikiLeaks Reveals U.S. Twisted Ethiopia’s Arm to Invade Somalia

By mid 2007, the 50,000 Ethiopian troops that invaded Somalia in late 2006 found themselves increasingly bogged down, facing much fiercer resistance than they had bargained for as Somalis of all stripes temporarily put aside their differences to stand together against the outside invader.

As the military incursion turned increasingly sour, then US Under Secretary of State for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, who taught at the University of Denver’s Korbel School of International Studies in the 1990s, insisted that, prior to the invasion, the United States had counseled caution and that Washington had warned Ethiopia not to use military force against Somalia. Frazer was a close collaborator with former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, for whom there also is a strong University of Denver connection. Frazer certainly tried to distance the United States from responsibility for the Ethiopian invasion in a number of interviews she gave to the media at the time.

But one of the released WikiLeaks cables, suggests a different picture, one that implicates Frazer in pressing Ethiopia’s President Meles Zenawi to invade its neighbor. The content of the cable is being widely discussed in the African media. It exposes a secret deal cut between the United States and Ethiopia to invade Somalia.

http://fpif.org/wikileaks_reveals_us_twisted_ethiopias_arm_to_invade_somalia/

[MisterP]

4. the best way to shoot someone, of course, is with someone else's finger on the trigger

sure, it always leads to blowback within 2 years (Libya, Syria)--but if you're both supporting AND fighting the same group simultaneously you get twice the profit! or four times! (I forget if it multiplies or squares)

it's like with the post-1980 suburbs: people move into the inaccessible McMansions, the economy busts, and you sit on the unsellable McMansions while people move into the cuter ranchettes that are closer to the candy shops and jobs and fire departments and whatnot

[Nihil]

5. It's little inconvenient facts like that ...

... that lead the right-wing war-hawks to so bitterly, loudly and repeatedly
smear Wikileaks, Assange, Snowdon et al. whenever they get chance.

They really don't like the light being shone on the antics of the cockroaches
(or should that be Koch-roaches?) in power.