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From: "mart" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
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Allies Step Up Somalia Watch
U.S. Aims to Keep Al Qaeda at Bay
By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 4, 2002;
With members of the al Qaeda terrorist network on the
run from Afghanistan and other former safe havens, the
United States is stepping up military activities in
and around Somalia to prevent the lawless African
country from becoming a new base for the group, Bush
administration officials said yesterday.
In recent days, the United States and leading NATO
allies have increased military reconnaissance flights
and other surveillance activities in Somalia, the
officials said.
Also, the Pentagon will soon have in the Arabian Sea
three Marine Expeditionary Units, each with about
1,200 troops. One of those units is scheduled to set
sail for the United States soon, but there will be a
one-week period during the middle of January when all
three will be available for operations in the region,
officials said.
As the Pentagon sharpened its focus on Somalia, U.S.
forces continued their efforts to track down al Qaeda
and Taliban remnants in Afghanistan. Yesterday, U.S.
warplanes launched a major airstrike -- the first in
six days -- against a military compound three miles
from the Pakistani border that Pentagon officials said
was being used as a gathering spot by terrorist
fighters trying to flee the country. [Details, Page
A19.]
Asked about the possibility of imminent military
action in Somalia, Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld declined to say what might happen. "It
doesn't do any good at all for me to be speculating
about different countries and what we might do next,"
he said.
But Rumsfeld, at a Pentagon news conference, went on
to speak in some detail about the presence of al Qaeda
in Somalia. "They go in and out," he said. "We know
there have been training camps there and that they
have been active over the years and that they . . . go
inactive when people get attentive to them."
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the
administration has not decided what action, if any, it
might take in Somalia. "We are working to ensure that
Somalia doesn't become a haven for terrorists," he
said. But he added: "No decisions on future targets,
no recommendations on future targets have gone to the
president."
The 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, aboard the USS
Bonhomme Richard and other ships, left the U.S. West
Coast early last month and is scheduled to leave
Singapore today and to steam westward into the Indian
Ocean, officials said. The 15th MEU, which like the
13th is based in Camp Pendleton, Calif., is pulling
out of Kandahar, Afghanistan, and is being replaced by
a regiment of the Army's 101st Air Assault Division
from Fort Campbell, Ky. A third MEU, the 26th, based
in Camp Lejeune, N.C., is also in the Arabian Sea.
Some experts speculated that the Marines might be used
for large-scale raids in Somalia. But others dismissed
that as unlikely, saying that the United States
probably would rely more on low-profile intelligence
actions. "I'm not convinced that Somalia will look
like Afghanistan," said one Pentagon official. "It
might be one of those things Rumsfeld describes as
something you don't see."
The increased attention being paid to Somalia is an
indication of the success the United States is having
globally in winning the cooperation of other nations
in going after members of al Qaeda, the terrorist
network led by Osama bin Laden and blamed by the Bush
administration for the Sept. 11 attacks in New York
and Washington.
Suspected members of the group are finding that former
havens such as Yemen, Egypt and Sudan are now cracking
down on them. About 500 suspected terrorists have been
detained or arrested outside the United States, U.S.
officials have said.
"I think they are very disrupted," Rumsfeld said. "It
takes them longer and it's harder and more dangerous
for them to raise money than it was three months ago."
Rumsfeld added that al Qaeda's ability to communicate,
to move and to train new members have also been
constrained.
But bin Laden and many other senior leaders of al
Qaeda remain at large, having slipped away from U.S.
forces in Afghanistan. Administration officials have
repeatedly expressed concern that bin Laden may try to
move through Pakistan to another country.
Even as he was overseeing planning for the war,
Rumsfeld privately expressed concern that al Qaeda
would be routed in Afghanistan, only to seek to
establish a new base in another country. About two
weeks after the September terrorist attacks, the
defense secretary told his senior military commanders
-- the regional commanders in chief known as CINCs --
to prepare to catch al Qaeda members as they flee
Afghanistan for other countries.
The new U.S. military operation in Somalia appears to
be the implementation of the plans prepared in
response to that order. In that sense, it is intended
more to prevent additional al Qaeda members from
getting into Somalia than to act against those already
there. "I think it is preemptive," said one U.S.
official. "It's also to make the point that the war
isn't limited to Afghanistan."
The major U.S. aerial reconnaissance activities have
been conducted by Navy P-3 planes flying out of a base
in Oman, at the southeastern corner of the Arabian
peninsula. They are mainly taking photographs of
suspected al Qaeda sites. Such images are helpful in
planning attacks and, because they are extremely
detailed, can also be used for tracking changes at a
site, such as the number of people training there or
the number of vehicles arriving and departing each
day.
In addition, British and French aircraft are flying
over Somalia. The major purpose of the flights, which
were first reported in yesterday's Washington Times,
is to "establish a baseline so we can be sensitive to
anomalies in the future," a Defense Department
official said.
The number of daily flights doubled to about four or
five last week, but Somalia has been a particular
focus of the U.S. military and intelligence
establishments since Sept. 11, in part because there
were reports that month that bin Laden had moved there
or made plans to do so. U.S. intelligence officials at
first found the reports credible but later decided
that they were incorrect.
Somalia has been considered a center of al Qaeda
activities since 1993, when bin Laden sent several top
lieutenants to provide assistance to Mohamed Farah
Aideed, a local warlord. In a firefight in October of
that year, Aideed's forces killed 18 U.S. Army troops
who were serving in a U.N. peacekeeping force. That
incident led to the U.S. withdrawal from the country.
After the U.S. withdrawal, al Qaeda members continued
to use Somalia as a regional base of operations.
According to U.S. intelligence officials and court
records, Somalia was the site of some of the
preparations for the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies
in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and in Nairobi.
Staff writer David B. Ottaway contributed to this
report.
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