Al Shabaab's Foreign Threat to Somalia

Orbis

Volumn 55, Issue 2, 2011, Pages 203-215

  Shinn, David ^a  

^a GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 79952441932     PISSN: 00304387     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.orbis.2011.01.003     Document Type: Article

References (31)

1. See Paul D. Williams, "Into the Mogadishu Maelstrom: The African Union Mission in Somalia," International Peacekeeping, August 2009, pp. 514-530.
2. Matt Bryden, "No Quick Fixes: Coming to Terms with Terrorism, Islam, and Statelessness in Somalia," Journal of Conflict Studies (Fall 2003), pp. 28-33; "Somalia's al-Ittihad al-Islami (AIAI; Islamic Union)," (www.ctc.usma.edu/aq/pdf/AIAI.pdf).
3. "Al-Qaida's (Mis)Adventures in the Horn of Africa," Harmony Project, Combating Terrorism Center, West Point (http://ctc.usma.edu/aq/pdf/Al-Qa%27ida%27s%20MisAdventures%20in%20the%20Horn%20of%20Africa.pdf)
4. "Abu Hafs al-Masri," (www.ctc.usma.edu/aq/pdf/Abu_Hafs.pdf)
5. David H. Shinn, "Al-Qaeda in East Africa and the Horn," Journal of Conflict Studies (Summer 2007), p. 56.
6. "Al-Qaida's (Mis)Adventures in the Horn of Africa," pp. 14, 19-23 and 42-43; "Al-Qaeda in East Africa and the Horn," pp. 57-58. Abu Hafs died in an airstrike on an al-Qaeda safe house in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2001.
7. "Kenyan Police 'Hack Al Qaeda Laptop,"' UPI, Jan. 31, 2007.
8. Abdirahman "Aynte" Ali, "The Anatomy of al Shabaab," June 2010, unpublished paper, pp. 11-16; "Report of the Monitoring Group on Somalia," UN Security Council document S/2010/91, March 10, 2010, p. 14 (http://reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MUMA-83N2WN); Jacob A. Zenn, "Al Shabaab's Unavoidable Clash with Somaliland Democracy," Terrorism Monitor, Aug. 19, 2010, p. 5; Christopher Harnisch, "The Terror Threat from Somalia: The Internationalization of al Shabaab," American Enterprise Institute Report, Feb. 12, 2010, p. 20; "A Diagnosis of Somalia's Failing Transitional Government," CTC Sentinel, July 2009, p. 10.
9. Comments made by then TFG Foreign Minister, Ahmed Jama Jangali, on June 4, 2010, at a conference attended by the author in Lund, Sweden.
10. Harnisch, "Terror Threat from Somalia," nicely summarizes these al Shabaab messages on pp. 24-27. See also Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, "The Strategic Challenge of Somalia's Al Shabaab: Dimensions of Jihad," Middle East Quarterly (Fall 2009), pp. 25-36; Sarah Childress, "Somalia's Al Shabaab to Ally with Al Qaeda," Wall Street Journal, Feb. 2, 2010.
11. Harnisch, "Terror Threat from Somalia," pp. 27-28.
12. Ibid., p. 19; U.S. State Department, "Country Reports on Terrorism 2009," (www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt/2009/140883.htm); "Report of the Monitoring Group Report on Somalia," 15; Alisha Ryu, "Al-Shabab Militants Divided over Tactics, Foreign Control," VOA, Dec. 22, 2009; "Somalia's Divided Islamists," International Crisis Group Africa Briefing no. 74, May 18, 2010, p. 7. See testimony on March 11, 2009, by Ken Menkhaus before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
13. Stig Jarle Hansen, "Revenge or Reward? The Case of Somalia's Suicide Bombers," Journal of Terrorism Research, issue 1, 2010, pp. 21-24; Abdirahman "Aynte" Ali, pp. 22-23; Jason Straziuso and Mohamed Olad Hassan, "Somali Rebels Looking Increasingly Like Taliban," AP, Aug. 22, 2010; Markus Virgil Hoehne, "Counter-terrorism in Somalia: How External Interference Helped to Produce Militant Islamism," unpublished paper, Dec. 17, 2009, p. 25 (http://hornofafrica.ssrc.org/Somalia/); Tim Pippard, "Al Shabaab's Agenda in the Wake of the Kampala Suicide Attacks," CTC Sentinel, July 2010, p. 5.
14. "Somalia's Divided Islamists," pp. 7-9; Abdirahman "Aynte" Ali, pp. 17-18; Bill Roggio, "Al-Qaeda Names Fazul Mohammed East African Commander," Long War Journal, Nov. 11, 2009; "Somalia: Al-Qaeda Foreign Operatives Dominate Al Shabaab Executive Council," Sept. 8, 2010 (http://sunatimes.com/view.php?id=392).
15. Quoted in Sudarsan Raghavan, "In Kenya's Capital, Somali Immigrant Neighborhood Is Incubator for Jihad," Washington Post, Aug. 22, 2010; "Report of the Monitoring Group on Somalia," pp. 25-27.
16. "Ex-Somali Fighters Tell Why They Abandoned Jihad," AFP, Nov. 28, 2009; Barbara Starr, "Up to 200 Foreign Fighters in Somalia, U.S. Officials Say," CNN, June 4, 2010; Francis Njubi Nesbitt, "Al Shabaab's Wakeup Call," Foreign Policy in Focus, July 26, 2010; "Report of the Monitoring Group on Somalia," p. 15. In mid-2009, Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles put the number of foreign fighters in Somalia between 1,000 and 2,500, well above most other estimates. See Andrew Cawthorne, "Ethiopia's Meles Eyes 'Long Rest' Post Retirement," Reuters, July 8, 2009. Comment by Ford on Sept. 27, 2010, at a conference in Washington sponsored by the Reserve Officers Association.
17. "Country Reports on Terrorism 2009"; Sudarsan Raghavan, "Foreign Fighters Gain Influence in Somalia's Islamist Al Shabaab Militia," Washington Post, June 8, 2010.
18. Stig Jarle Hansen, pp. 30-32; "FBI Chief: Suicide Bomber Indoctrinated in Minnesota," Star Tribune, Feb. 24, 2009; "Foreign Fighters Gain Influence"; "Somalia's Foreign Fighters," Jane's Terrorism and Security Monitor, June 2009, p. 7.
19. "We Are Sorry, Say 7/11 Suicide Bombers," New Vision (Kampala), Aug. 12, 2010; "Suspect Says Rage at US Led Him to Plot Ugandan Bombs," Reuters, Aug. 12, 2010.
20. Mohamed Olad Hassan, "Indians among Foreign Fighters Killed in Somalia," AP, Aug. 21, 2010; Dana Hughes, Kirit Radia and Jason Ryan, "American Jihadi Killed in Somalia Shootout," ABC News, Sept. 10, 2010.
21. Harnisch, "Terror Threat from Somalia," pp. 29-31; "Report of the Monitoring Group on Somalia," p. 31; "Somalia's Foreign Fighters," p. 7. For an excellent study of Omar Hammami, see Andrea Elliott, "The Jihadist Next Door," New York Times Magazine, Jan. 31, 2010.
22. Remarks by Ken Menkhaus, professor at Davidson College, during Sept. 27, 2010 conference in Washington, D.C., hosted by Reserve Officers Association.
23. Andrea Elliott, "A Call to Jihad from Somalia, Answered in America," New York Times, July 12, 2009; "Joining the Fight in Somalia," New York Times, July 12, 2009; "Suspects Free with Conditions in Minn. Terror Case," AP, July 17, 2010.
24. William K. Rashbaum, "Two Arrested at Kennedy Airport on Terror Charges," New York Times, June 6, 2010; Mike Levine, "After Crawling Onto U.S. Radar, Somalia Extremists Pose Threat - But Will They Go Global?" Fox News, Aug. 20, 2010; Amy Forliti, "Minneapolis Somalis Meet with FBI, Denounce al-Shabab," AP, Sept. 1, 2010.
25. Mark Townsend, "Britons Join the Jihadist Ranks to Fight in Somalia," Observer, May 2, 2010; Harnisch, p. 32; Karl Ritter, "Sweden Rattled by Somali Militants in Its Midst," Washington Post, Jan. 24, 2010; Raffaello Pantucci, "Understanding the Al Shabaab Networks," Australian Strategic Policy Institute Policy Analysis, Oct. 13, 2009, pp. 3-4; "Report of the Monitoring Group on Somalia," p. 32; "Somali Bomber 'Was from Denmark'," BBC, Dec. 10, 2009; "Kenyan Reporter Recounts Somali Americans' Journey to Join Al Shabaab," Star (Nairobi), Aug. 25, 2010; "Somalia's Foreign Fighters," p. 8; Richard Norton-Taylor, "MI5 Chief Warns of Terror Threat from Britons Trained in Somalia," Guardian, Sept. 17, 2010.
26. Comment by Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Director of the Center for the Study of Terrorist Radicalization at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, at Sept. 27, 2010, conference in Washington hosted by Reserve Officers Association.
27. Conversation in Nairobi, Kenya, on July 26, 2010, between author and a Somali who was in the area at the time of the takeover.
28. Abdulkadir Khalif, "Al Shabaab Continues Its Rule of Terror...Even in the Holy Month," East African, Sept. 6, 2010.
29. African Union, "Report of the Chairperson of the Commission on the Situation in Somalia," Oct. 15, 2010, p. 7.
30. Oct. 13, 2010, report on Somali website www.somaaljecel.com.
31. Comments by Menkhaus and Gartenstein-Ross at Sept. 27, 2010, conference in Washington, D.C.