Secular warlords were used as proxies, with one of the aims being the capture of al-Qaeda suspects, insiders say. Instead, some say, the tactic empowered Islamists.
By Mark Mazzetti
The New York Times
Washington - A covert CIA effort to finance Somali warlords has drawn sharp criticism from U.S. government officials who say the campaign has thwarted counterterrorism efforts inside Somalia and empowered the same Islamic groups it was intended to marginalize.
The criticism, expressed privately,
flared even before the apparent victory this week by Islamist militias in the country dealt a sharp setback to American policy, according to U.S. government officials with direct knowledge of the debate.
The officials said the CIA effort, run from the agency's station in Nairobi, Kenya, had channeled hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past year to secular warlords inside Somalia with the aim, among other things, of capturing or killing a handful of suspected members of al-Qaeda believed to be hiding there.
Officials say the decision to use proxies was born in part from fears of committing large numbers of U.S. personnel to counterterrorism efforts in Somalia, a country the U.S. hastily left in 1994 after attempts to capture warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid ended in the deaths of 18 U.S. troops.
The U.S. effort of the past year has occasionally included trips to Somalia by Nairobi-based CIA case officers, who landed on warlord-controlled airstrips in Mogadishu with large amounts of money for distribution to Somali militias, according to U.S. officials involved in Africa policymaking and to outside experts.
Among those who have criticized the CIA operation as shortsighted have been senior foreign service officers at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi. Earlier this year, Leslie Rowe, the embassy's second-ranking official, signed off on a cable back to State Department headquarters that detailed grave concerns throughout the region about U.S. efforts in Somalia, according to several people with knowledge of the report.
Around that time, the State Department's political officer for Somalia, Michael Zorick, who had been based in Nairobi, was reassigned to Chad after he sent a cable to Washington criticizing the policy of paying Somali warlords.
One U.S. government official who traveled to Nairobi this year said officials from various government agencies working in Somalia had expressed concern that American activities
in the country were not being carried out in the context of a broader policy.
"They realized that there might be negative implications to what they are doing," the official said.
Details are classified, and U.S. officials from several agencies agreed to discuss them only after being assured anonymity. The officials included supporters of the CIA-led effort and critics. A CIA spokesman declined to comment, as did a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Kenya.
Asked about the complaints made by embassy officials, Thomas Casey, a State Department spokesman, said: "We're not going to discuss any internal policy discussions. The secretary certainly encourages individuals in the policymaking process to express their views."
Several news organizations have reported on American payments to the Somali warlords. Reuters and Newsweek were the first to report about Zorick's cable and reassignment to Chad. The extent and location of the CIA's efforts, and the extent of the internal dissent, have not been previously disclosed.
Some Africa experts argue that U.S. support for secular warlords may have helped to unnerve the Islamic militias and prompted them to launch pre- emptive strikes. The Islamic militias have been routing the warlords, and on Monday they claimed to have taken control of most of the Somali capital.
"This has blown up in our face, frankly," said John Prendergast of the International Crisis Group, a nonprofit research organization with extensive field experience in Somalia. "We've strengthened the hand of the people whose presence we were worried most about."
SOURCE: NY TIMES, June 8, 2006
