Somalia Potential "Haven" for Terrorists, Defense Official Says

(Says Somali enclaves exist in other Horn of Africa countries)





Washington -- Somalia is "a favorable environment" and "a potential


haven for some al Qaeda terrorist members, to include those currently


trying to flee Afghanistan," a senior Defense Department official told


reporters at a Pentagon briefing March 8. The briefing was the


department's first regional look at terrorism around the world --


specifically, the terrorist threat in the Horn of Africa.





The unnamed "senior defense official" said that there are special


factors which make Somalia "a favorable environment for the continuing


presence of indigenous extremists," including that country's lack of


"a fully functioning government for a decade or more."





"There are no central government security organs, and the country has


a long, porous border," he said, specifically singling out the Somali


Islamic Union, or al-Ittihaad al-Islamiya -- AIAI -- as a terrorist


threat.





AIAI members number in the hundreds, and some factions have denounced


the U.S. presence in Somalia and have threatened U.S. and Western aid


groups, the official said, adding that Somali enclaves also exist in


Kenya, Djibouti, and Ethiopia.





Usama bin Laden and his senior advisors have made statements in the


past implying that the al Qaeda organization "has ties to some violent


Somali Islamic extremists," he said.





Although the terrorist presence has declined in Sudan since the


departure of bin Laden, who lived there many years, and "Khartoum ...


has voiced opposition to terrorism and offered cooperation in the war


on terrorism," many terrorist groups use Sudan "as a secure base for


assisting their compatriots elsewhere. It's possible Sudan might be a


relocation [site for] some al Qaeda terrorists fleeing Afghanistan,"


he said.





There are Somali enclaves in Djibouti, the official said, adding that


Djibouti is a very rural country that "may lack the robust kinds of


border controls ... we find in other areas. So that would be a logical


place for al Qaeda and other Islamic extremists like this extreme AIAI


faction to operate."





In response to questions, the official said that to his knowledge


"extreme AIAI members really have not engaged in acts of terrorism


outside Somalia," adding that it is an "indigenous organization


working really in Somalia and within ethnic enclaves in the region."





The official declined to go into detail about evidence of active al


Qaeda cells in Somalia, saying he was "not comfortable going into the


level of detail it would require."





"Clearly, bin Laden has saluted [praised] Somalis," he said. "Clearly,


Somalia is a place where it would be appropriate for al Qaeda members


to go if they were to flee Afghanistan. And so this, of course, makes


it something that we would be interested in."





Pressed to identify places in Somalia where AIAI is based, the


official said, "The AIAI factions are dispersed throughout the


country," with the South of Somalia "an area of particular focus." One


AIAI faction residing in the South near Ras Kamboni "has threatened


aid workers and so on in the past," he said.





Al Qaeda has "highlighted and saluted AIAI" in the past, the official


said, and he called the Somali group "an Islamic extremist


organization writ large. Its worldview mirrors al Qaeda's, in


general."





There are organizations in Somalia "that are seeking increasing


stability," he noted, naming the Transitional National Government


(TNG) as one. Established in August 2000 with the inauguration of


President Abdikassim, it controls a portion of the capital, Mogadishu,


and a small corridor stretching along the coast toward Kismayu.





The Defense official remarked that Kenya "has taken an active role in


trying to ensure Somali reconciliation and has sponsored several


talks, one slated for April, "to try to reconcile the various [Somali]


clan factions." Clan interests, he noted, "supersede religious


interests and other interests. And when we speak of AIAI, one reason


they haven't had success in fulfilling their charter of creating this


Greater Somalia is because the clan interests often conflict with


their views."





Yemen, he said, "given the past ... attack on the USS Cole in October


2000, given it's bin Laden's father's historical homeland, is another


place where we think al Qaeda members might flee."





Asked by what means al Qaeda members might flee Afghanistan, given


"the naval blockade in the Arabian Sea, and with the United States


essentially controlling Afghan airspace," the DOD official said, "You


can't plug every gap; you can't create secure, guaranteed kinds of


cordons for onesies and twosies [one or two individuals] who simply


seek to walk ... to a place where they can get alternative means of


transportation, whether car, boat -- even aircraft.





"We certainly want to deny safe haven for al Qaeda members fleeing


Afghanistan, wherever they would flee to. And these are logical places


they may consider."