from Europe News:
As international destinations go, Somalia has been off-the-charts for more than two decades. With no effective central government and a mindboggling array of clans, militias, Islamists and pirates, this Horn of Africa nation has turned into the farthest thing from paradise on earth.
Except if you’re on the "jihadi tourism” trail, scouting for the perfect terrorism training spot.
The term "jihadi tourism” first appeared in news reports in late 2010, when US diplomatic cables, revealed by WikiLeaks, quoted a US diplomat in East Africa worrying about "a certain amount of so-called ‘jihadi tourism’ to southern Somalia”.
In a January 2010 cable on a classified meeting, then UN Special Representative for Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah warned that Somalia was turning into an "incubator” for terrorists, "including those holding US, United Kingdom and European passports”.
But when it comes to Somalia, it’s easier to overlook the latest threat from a country that has turned into a byword for a failed state than to actually do something about it. In another leaked cable, for instance, senior British officials dismissed a request for peacekeeping troops with a terse, "there is not enough peace to keep in Somalia".
Making the journey to an ‘Islamic land’
Peace has not come to this East African nation, but right now, there are plenty of African troops fighting in the al Shabaab strongholds of southern and central Somalia. The Islamist group ceded territory to African Union troops in the Somali capital of Mogadishu last year. In mid-October, Kenya launched a military operation in southern Somalia, which was followed by an Ethiopian incursion in November.
Despite the onslaught, al Shabaab is by no means a spent force. In the face of superior firepower, the Islamist group has been employing hit-and-run tactics, slowing down the Kenyan military advance.
As for the jihadi tourism trail, it shows no sign of drying up. If anything, a recent slew of reports suggest that US and European nationals are still responding to al Shabaab’s recruitment drives.
Shortly before Christmas, Jermaine Grant, a British national, was apprehended in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa and charged with possessing explosive materials and plotting to explode a bomb.
Grant’s arrest came as Kenyan authorities issued an arrest warrant for another British national, Natalie Faye Webb, who is believed to have links to al Shabaab.
Meanwhile in the US, prosecutors in Maryland charged a former US soldier last week with attempting to join and provide material support to al Shabaab.
In a nine-page criminal affidavit, US prosecutors alleged that Craig Baxam, a 24-year-old convert to Islam, had traveled to Kenya, from where he intended to reach al Shabaab territory in neighbouring Somalia.
Baxam was arrested in Kenya before being put on a plane back to the US, where he’s currently facing trial.
According to the affidavit, the Maryland native "had no real religious affiliation” until he discovered Islam on a religious Web site. He quit the US army in July 2011, shortly after converting to Islam. The affidavit notes that Baxam "wanted to make his hijra [or migration to an Islamic land] to Somalia to defend Sharia law under Al-Shabaab.” [sic] (...)
Somalia is the new hotspot on the ‘jihadi tourism’ trail
FRANCE 24 18 January 2012
By Leela JACINTO
By Leela JACINTO
Except if you’re on the "jihadi tourism” trail, scouting for the perfect terrorism training spot.
The term "jihadi tourism” first appeared in news reports in late 2010, when US diplomatic cables, revealed by WikiLeaks, quoted a US diplomat in East Africa worrying about "a certain amount of so-called ‘jihadi tourism’ to southern Somalia”.
In a January 2010 cable on a classified meeting, then UN Special Representative for Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah warned that Somalia was turning into an "incubator” for terrorists, "including those holding US, United Kingdom and European passports”.
But when it comes to Somalia, it’s easier to overlook the latest threat from a country that has turned into a byword for a failed state than to actually do something about it. In another leaked cable, for instance, senior British officials dismissed a request for peacekeeping troops with a terse, "there is not enough peace to keep in Somalia".
Making the journey to an ‘Islamic land’
Peace has not come to this East African nation, but right now, there are plenty of African troops fighting in the al Shabaab strongholds of southern and central Somalia. The Islamist group ceded territory to African Union troops in the Somali capital of Mogadishu last year. In mid-October, Kenya launched a military operation in southern Somalia, which was followed by an Ethiopian incursion in November.
Despite the onslaught, al Shabaab is by no means a spent force. In the face of superior firepower, the Islamist group has been employing hit-and-run tactics, slowing down the Kenyan military advance.
As for the jihadi tourism trail, it shows no sign of drying up. If anything, a recent slew of reports suggest that US and European nationals are still responding to al Shabaab’s recruitment drives.
Shortly before Christmas, Jermaine Grant, a British national, was apprehended in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa and charged with possessing explosive materials and plotting to explode a bomb.
Grant’s arrest came as Kenyan authorities issued an arrest warrant for another British national, Natalie Faye Webb, who is believed to have links to al Shabaab.
Meanwhile in the US, prosecutors in Maryland charged a former US soldier last week with attempting to join and provide material support to al Shabaab.
In a nine-page criminal affidavit, US prosecutors alleged that Craig Baxam, a 24-year-old convert to Islam, had traveled to Kenya, from where he intended to reach al Shabaab territory in neighbouring Somalia.
Baxam was arrested in Kenya before being put on a plane back to the US, where he’s currently facing trial.
According to the affidavit, the Maryland native "had no real religious affiliation” until he discovered Islam on a religious Web site. He quit the US army in July 2011, shortly after converting to Islam. The affidavit notes that Baxam "wanted to make his hijra [or migration to an Islamic land] to Somalia to defend Sharia law under Al-Shabaab.” [sic] (...)
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