by Hanad Haidar**
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Let us not kid ourselves: Puntland government forces stormed and seized the makeshift camps used to make bombs and train teenage boys to shoot at "infidels" within hours, not days. The main suspect, Al Shabaab agent and weapons trafficker Mohamed Said Atom, is on the run and continues to conduct interviews from remote locations. Lately, he has vowed to wage a guerrilla war against Puntland State and its citizens. Government officials say, in reports corroborated by the media, that dozens of his fighters have been killed or captured, while the remaining few have been scattered. These survivors are predictably planning suicidal missions against Puntland troops in the rugged hilly area around Galgala, a small farming town located southwest of Puntland's bustling port city of Bossaso.
Apparently, Al Shabaab's fugitive leaders – Somali and foreign fighters – have promised Atom and his comrades that Heaven is very close. "Kill more infidels from the Puntland Government," the elusive Al Shabaab insurgent chief Godane probably told his obedient minions like Atom, who serve the dollar at the expense of their own families and communities. "We'll send you more money to kill the infidels." Sounds like a scene from a bad movie script written by Osama bin Laden himself.
Never mind that Atom's motley collection of extremist revolutionaries is ideologically confused and incapable of pulling out of their present physical and ideological predicament. Desperately hiding in the mountains, under the barrage of a Puntland military offensive, Atom's own foot soldiers must have wondered: "Boss, when is the cavalry coming?"
Al Shabaab: Content with its minions
Meanwhile, Abu Mansur is sipping tea with one of his multiple wives in a guarded villa located in the southern Somali city of Baidoa, the capital of his clan homeland. He is comfortable, answering phone calls and sending even more would-be suicide bombers (mostly teenage boys) to their own graves. His partner-in-terror, Godane, spends his days living underground, plotting more attacks against the internationally-recognized Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in Mogadishu, against the State of Puntland and its elected leadership through the use of expendable minions like Atom, and even against his own clan homeland of Somaliland.
No doubt, Godane is perpetually angry that his clan-cousins in Somaliland managed to hold peaceful elections and a subsequent orderly transition of power followed, from one elected president to another. There were no bombings in Hargeisa, as Godane had promised the armies of ignorance who follow his infrequent audio releases. Imagine: a people who become disappointed and angry because bombs did not go off and kill innocent Somali mothers and children. Can we even refer to these bloodthirsty animals as humans?
It is exceedingly clear that Godane and the Al Shabaab minions he leads remain deeply unhappy about their present situation. The international community, by exercising the muscle of a 6,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force in Mogadishu, has ensured that Al Shabaab remains a ragtag militia that excels at punishing unarmed civilians through the abusive implementation and intentional misuse of our honorable Islamic Shari'ah law. Ordinary Muslim scholars across Somalia have rejected Al Shabaab's version of Shari'ah law as lacking basic principles of Islamic jurisprudence, and have explained Al Shabaab's actions as efforts to terrorize local populations into surrender.
Still, in purely conventional military terms, this group of killers remains extremely inefficient (if not altogether cowardly). This "containment policy" promoted by the international community has no doubt angered Al Shabaab’s leaders, including those foreign fugitives who wish to transform Somalia into a Africa's own Swat Valley – thereby inviting NATO air strikes and prolonging regional interventions in Somalia by the African Union under the pretext of regional stability, or even the dreaded return of Ethiopian occupiers. To divert its energy, Al Shabaab needed to create a new chapter to stir trouble in erstwhile peaceful enclave of Puntland, and perhaps neighboring Somaliland.
Words of a lone madman
Puntland government forces effectively seized control of the fugitive Atom's house, the training camp at Madashon village, and a third base of operations. This particular group of militants is the pilot project of Al Shabaab "outsourcing" its terror activities to local commanders in Puntland and in Somaliland, in order to spread their havoc and stir distrust among local communities.
In assessing Atom's language use during interviews, one can quickly pick out the discrepancies and contradictions that place him squarely in the same lot as Al Shabaab and other international extremists. Government leaders consider him the man primarily responsible for a string of assassinations and bombings in Puntland towns, killing more than 50 people, most of whom were government officials or soldiers in Puntland. But Atom's violence has not spared civilian bystanders, either.
This man makes no effort to deny the charges, but digs a grave for himself: "We are Muslims and we are fighting against the Puntland Intelligence Service," he repeatedly says, a reference to the Puntland Intelligence Agency (PIA) which underwent considerable reform for the first time since its creation in 2002, reputedly as part of CIA covert ops program established during the height of Bush's "War on Terror" campaign. The man leading this reform is none other than President of Puntland Abdirahman Mohamed Mohamud (Farole), delving into sensitive matters his predecessors shied away from and betting his political career on it.
Clearly, Atom is not against the PIA – which he accuses of "rendition" of religious scholars. In truth, there has been no known case of any local sheikh or religious scholar being arrested, forget renditions to the so-called CIA "black sites" in foreign countries. The mosques are full to capacity in Puntland and the religious sermons are typical for any other peaceful part of the Muslim world: instructing Muslims to pray daily, to give charity, and to fast during this holy month of Ramadan, among other religious topics of interest to the public. Naturally, this does not include the Al Shabaab version of a religious sermon: "Kill the infidels; contribute to the jihad with your son, money or property; women cannot wear bras;" etc.
Because the religious sermons Atom desires have no place in Puntland's religious centers, this further perpetuates his unexplainable anger at the State. His second argument is that he is "protecting local resources" – perhaps, this is the false pretense so many writers in the Diaspora have exploited. The Internet is awash with endless pages and Websites that repeated these misleading fabrications akin to the pirates' notorious motto whenever they are caught in the act: "We are fishermen," the pirates always say to authorities.
The anti-government forces lost the ground war after Puntland troops brought home a quick and decisive victory. And so the Internet battlefield commences, hoping to bring a victory with mere online words that the fugitive Atom could not bring with all his bombs and bullets.
The Internet battlefield
Today, you have many Diaspora writers on the Internet selfishly promoting a false image of Atom and his comrades-in-terror, in a failed attempt to paint them as "clan warriors" who are simply defending the local clan's resources. One wonders: even if he is allowed to do so, then why bother to have a State in the first place? The simple answer is that these Diaspora writers, most of who live in the comfort of the West, have been bitten by the anarchy bug that has already destroyed Mogadishu. Why else would they support the eruption of an insurgency in Puntland, a peaceful and lawful part of anarchic Somalia?
These Diaspora writers forget that, once you are inside Puntland, Atom considers you as much an "infidel" as he considers Puntland government officials. This man is loyal to Godane and Abu Mansur – not his own clan. The proof is simple: show me a clan anywhere in Puntland that is supporting Atom, either vocally or materially?
If there are "local grievances" as these whiny writers often allude to, there are appropriate legal channels to address them. Puntland was founded on the principles of community consensus and clan solidarity; therefore, Puntland did not come to being as a military dictatorship nor was any clan or sub-clan in Puntland forcefully compelled to join the State. The traditional elders (Issims) of Puntland wield the most power in the State. Since Atom lacks the support of his own Issims, he is forced to run for his own dear life and is being hunted down for his crimes.
The unashamed hypocrisy of these writers, or rather "Internet warriors," does not surprise me. In late 2008, during the months of Puntland's election fervor, these same writers were promoting "their man" for the Puntland Presidency, for obvious clan reasons – none other than Gen. Abdullahi Ahmed Jama (Ilkajir), today's famed Interior Minister of Puntland. Less than two years later, the General has become the target of a vicious campaign of defamation by these same "Internet warriors."
The General lost a fair election, respectfully accepted the results and has even become a notable Puntland Cabinet minister and key ally of President Farole. But these "Internet warriors," duped by grand delusions and wicked ambitions, were deeply disappointed and almost immediately began singing a different tune: we want Maakhir State; we support Atom because he "protects resources"; and my personal favorite, "Farole is a pirate." Irish poet and novelist Oscar Wilde once said: "I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world."
It is evidently clear that these "Internet warriors" lacked foundational principles and moral values from the onset. In 2008, their support for Gen. Ilkajir (a person) was fueled by this lack of principles. In 2010, their outwardly support for a fugitive like Atom today – despite Atom's domestic isolation from his own clan – is a reflection that they love men without principles more than anything else. When innocents were being bombed by Atom's death squads in Bossaso, these writers were silent, or maybe they were appreciative. When the war was taken to Atom's hideouts in Galgala, they began their relentless online campaign, literally day and night, to fight with online words as if reality-on-the-ground will change because of a Website.
I am an unashamed supporter of President Farole's astute political leadership. Using traditional mechanisms, the President provided Atom and his comrades-in-terror a long time to atone for their crimes and to surrender their weapons. It takes remarkable patience, steely character and leadership to offer a terrorist like Atom an opportunity, a breathing space to rethink his loyalty to Al Shabaab and a chance to rejoin Puntland mainstream society. I am a firm believer that, wherever tradition fails, the use of force is justified and righteous – and the President was absolutely right to put a kill-or-capture order on Atom and his wicked colleagues. The city of Bossaso has enjoyed a respite from the spate of bombings and Al Shabaab is not sending any cavalry to help their runaway comrades led by Al Shabaab's local commander Atom. For Al Shabaab, Atom was a useful but expandable tool. When confronted by the State, they turned their backs on him.
Atom has become an enemy of the State. Therefore, Romeo Must Die.
**The author resides in Washington, D.C., and can be contacted by E-mail at: [email protected]