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| Great White North |
| Somali Militias May Pose Homegrown Threat |
| 2006-10-18 |
| Concern is growing among U.S. and Canadian counter-terrorism specialists that Somali-Canadians are joining Islamic militias in their homeland linked to al-Qaida. Former senior Canadian Intelligence official David Harris told United Press International there was concern that returning militia veterans with "the kind of skills that ... could make them very dangerous," might try to stage terror attacks. "We're seeing the possibility of a tragic future unfold," he said. Harris -- a former chief of strategic planning for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service who now directs a terrorism intelligence program for a private sector consultancy -- said he was "extremely uneasy about what their ultimate return would imply for our security." If the returning militia veterans were naturalized citizens or permanent residents of Canada, they would also be able to easily enter the United States, he said. Canada's National Post newspaper reported at the weekend that some naturalized Canadians have joined the al-Shabaab ("The Youth") militia in Somalia, and that others hold leadership positions within other parts of the Islamic Courts Union, or ICU -- the loose coalition of Muslim militias that now controls Mogadishu and much of the rest of the country. It sourced the charge to a single, un-named "Somalia expert," and neither U.S. nor Canadian intelligence officials would comment for this story. However, al-Shabaab is a source of special concern for counter-terror agencies because its leader, Aden Hashi Farah Ayro, was trained by al-Qaida in Afghanistan before the U.S. invasion, and maintains links with the group, according to the International Crisis Group, a non-profit that monitors the world's conflict zones. One human rights specialist, Uganda-based Hassan Shire Sheikh, told the National Post that while there was little information about the role of foreigners in the ICU, he believed "there are a good number of Somalis with various Western naturalized citizenships within the rank and the file of the ICU, and (that) may warrant more systematic investigations." Last month, according to the Voice of America, Ayro told a rally in the southern port city of Kismayo, which his forces had just seized, that foreign fighters would now be a part of the Islamic militia movement. Other reports said that he had Arabs, Chechens and some Central Asians among his entourage. Pakistani officials said in recent months that at least 50 Islamic militants had left that country for Somalia to link up with jihadists like Ayro. Last week, according to one local media report, the president of the ICU, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, considered the more moderate of the group's two main leaders, told a meeting in Mogadishu that the Somali Diaspora should join what he called the militia's holy war against neighboring Ethiopia. Rest at link. |
| Posted by:ed |