From: Barry Stoller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Reported: Somalia is next US target HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- AP. 19 December 2001. Senior German Official Says Somalia Will Be Next Target in America's War on Terrorism. BRUSSELS, Belgium -- A senior German official said Wednesday that the United States had marked war-ravaged Somalia as the next target in its global fight against Osama bin Laden's terrorist network. The German official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it is no longer a question of whether to go after al-Qaida in Somalia, but only when and how. In Brussels, Gen. Richard Myers, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged that Somalia is a potential target, but refused to discuss whether it was in America's future military plans. "We are not going to speculate on any next operation," Myers said in a meeting with journalists in Brussels. "Countries that harbor terrorists worry us," he added. "Somalia is one potential country, but there are others as well." At Tuesday's meeting in Brussels of NATO defense ministers, Rumsfeld mentioned Yemen and Sudan as countries suspected of supporting terrorism. Iraq also has been identified by President Bush and other senior administration officials as a potential target. Glen Warren, a U.S. diplomat who follows Somali affairs from the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, in neighboring Kenya, arrived Wednesday on a rare official visit to Mogadishu, the Somali capital, to meet with government and factional leaders. He said his trip was "mainly concentrating on America's war against international terrorism." Somalia, a country ravaged by a decade of clan warfare, is home to the Al-Itihaad al-Islamiya, or "Islamic Union," a fundamentalist group that has been linked to al-Qaida. A weak transitional government headed by President Abdiqasim Salat Hassan took over last year, but it has never been recognized by the United States and has little influence outside Mogadishu. Earlier this month, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs, Walter Kansteiner, told reporters in Nairobi that the Bush administration believes there are links between Al-Itihaad and the transitional government. U.S. officials have been meeting with government and opposition officials in recent weeks to discuss terrorism. In early December, nine people identified by aid workers and a regional security official as Americans visited a town in western Somalia in early December and met with local faction leaders and Ethiopian military officers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ______________
