Jeremy scahil on morning joe-The CIA's Secret Sites in Somalia

The CIA's Secret Sites in Somalia

Nestled in a back corner of Mogadishu's Aden Adde International Airport is a sprawling walled compound run by the Central Intelligence Agency. Set on the coast of the Indian Ocean, the facility looks like a small gated community, with more than a dozen buildings behind large protective walls and secured by guard towers at each of its four corners. Adjacent to the compound are eight large metal hangars, and the CIA has its own aircraft at the airport. The site, which airport officials and Somali intelligence sources say was completed four months ago, is guarded by Somali soldiers, but the Americans control access. At the facility, the CIA runs a counterterrorism training program for Somali intelligence agents and operatives aimed at building an indigenous strike force capable of snatch operations and targeted "combat" operations against members of Al Shabab, an Islamic militant group with close ties to Al Qaeda.

As part of its expanding counterterrorism program in Somalia, the CIA also uses a secret prison buried in the basement of Somalia's National Security Agency (NSA) headquarters, where prisoners suspected of being Shabab members or of having links to the group are held. Some of the prisoners have been snatched off the streets of Kenya and rendered by plane to Mogadishu. While the underground prison is officially run by the Somali NSA, US intelligence personnel pay the salaries of intelligence agents and also directly interrogate prisoners. The existence of both facilities and the CIA role was uncovered by The Nation during an extensive on-the-ground investigation in Mogadishu. Among the sources who provided information for this story are senior Somali intelligence officials; senior members of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG); former prisoners held at the underground prison; and several well-connected Somali analysts and militia leaders, some of whom have worked with US agents, including those from the CIA. A US official, who confirmed the existence of both sites, told The Nation, "It makes complete sense to have a strong counterterrorism partnership" with the Somali government.

The CIA presence in Mogadishu is part of Washington's intensifying counterterrorism focus on Somalia, which includes targeted strikes by US Special Operations forces, drone attacks and expanded surveillance operations. The US agents "are here full time," a senior Somali intelligence official told me. At times, he said, there are as many as thirty of them in Mogadishu, but he stressed that those working with the Somali NSA do not conduct operations; rather, they advise and train Somali agents. "In this environment, it's very tricky. They want to help us, but the situation is not allowing them to do [it] however they want. They are not in control of the politics, they are not in control of the security," he adds. "They are not controlling the environment like Afghanistan and Iraq. In Somalia, the situation is fluid, the situation is changing, personalities changing."

Continue reading: http://www.thenation.com/article/161936/cias-secret-sites-somalia

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Jermey
• scahill
• CIA
• secret
• prison
• somalia
• al-shabaab
• al-shabab
• mujahideen
• the nation
• mogadishu
• morning joe
• obama
• barack

[EdMan2012]

The leftist socialist so-called "liberals" will still support Obama simply because he's not Bush. Bunch of party-loving ignoramus hypocrites. Hopefully many will wake up and realize the false two-party paradigm and understand that adhering to our constitutional principles is the only way to bring peace and prosperity to this republic.

[88roro11]

why hasnt any one realized democrat or republican they are one in the same.. also we created and funded al-Qaeda in the 80's via the cia, to battle communist russia, and it has been admitted that in Libya al-Qaeda is on the rebelling force and the u.n. and cia are aiding them???

[021541]

create an energy source as close to free as possible or run as many low return energy sources as you can and guess what you arent funding their criminal economy anymore..

[laurasIs2c]

Just another reason to stop supporting to stop our military from ruining the world.

[SomaliDate]

am somali american n its really sad to see this cuz somalia is a poor country with no terrorist and stupid obama is doin dis shit n killin innocent people!!

[dnifty1]

LOL. The base of Al-Qaeda and fundamentalist Islam is in Saudi Arabia. That is where the ideology of fundamentalist islam comes from and the funding. Osama taught us that. But those are our biggest allies. Salafist/wahhabist thought comes from Saudi Arabia. Then the US helped give them fangs by supporting the spread of Islamist armies in Pakistan/Afghanistan (vs the soviets) and Serbia. So in reality, just like in LIbya, they are a militant force armed and trained by the US.

[illumanonymous]

Nooooo! Not directly... Paid by a third party courier with plausible deniability.

[mjh012363]

@MyImago Yeah and Ron Paul will end Social Security, Medicare, the EPA, abolish the Civil Rights Act etc. etc. etc. I'm for peace but not at that price!

[Reqrezentin]

@EdMan2012

Liberals are not supporting Obama, where are you?

[AccordGTR]

CNN - The London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism reported CIA covert drone strikes since 2004 killed at least 385 civilians, including 160 children, in Pakistan. US govt senior official estimated 2,000 militants and 50 civilians have been killed in strikes since 2001. "In that same period of time, we can't confirm any noncombatant casualties," the official said. Who cares about killing civilians, right?

[MyImago]

Ron Paul will bring the troops home!!

[megaprinciples]

Please vote for Ron Paul and put your "lessor of two evils" aside for this election. It's Paul vs Obama, because we can not affored to all go back to sleep if the contest ends up being Rino vs Dino - they are one and the same party.