Interesting read re: Dalsan

[Niya]

http://reportingwar.com/strategicinterests.shtml

[Grant]

Interesting read, indeed:


Published 21 Sep 06

Strategic Interests

by J. Peter Pham, Ph.D.
World Defense Review columnist

Financing Somalia's Islamist Warlords


..."From mid-2004 until April 2006, the directors of Dalsan began selling tens of thousands shares in the company to hundreds of outside investors, mainly drawn from the Somali diaspora. The effort, including Somali-language prospectuses promising divinely-assured "risk free" investments ("Haddii at dhacdo inaad la kulanto wax aan ku raali galin waxaan ka siinaynaa mag dhow. Laakin ma dhacayso Alle Idamki!") raised somewhere between $10 million and $30 million in capital from investors, many of them hardworking Somali exiles.


During the same period, the company rapidly expanded its operations. It established some sixteen branches in Mogadishu as well as operations in the northeastern Somali region of Puntland. Dalsan also aggressively marketed its services to Somalis working in the U.S., Great Britain, Australia, and other Western countries who wanted to send money to families and other relatives in Somalia, promising internet transfers payable "within 5-10 minutes anywhere in the world."


In 2005, Dalsan chairman Mohamed Sheikh Osman, who had been operating out of an East London mosque, was arrested by Kenyan counterterrorism officials, reportedly acting at the behest of Britain's Security Service (MI5), while he transited through that African country. He was later released and disappeared back into Somalia where he linked up with his old Al-Itihaad companion, Sheikh 'Aweys. Meanwhile his place at Dalsan was taken over by his London-based younger brother, Muktaar Sheikh Osman.


The younger Sheikh Osman brother then helped engineered the removal of Dalsan's chief executive officer and his replacement with one Abdilkadir Hashi 'Ayro. Abdilkadir is the younger brother of none other than Adan Hashi 'Ayro, who trained in Afghanistan with al-Qaeda before returning to his country after 9/11 and who, as I reported in this column earlier this month, has founded within the ICU an even more radical cadre, Al-Shabaab ("The Youth"), consisting of young men, aged between 20 and 30 years who fought on the frontlines of the Islamists' recent successful military operations. One of the new CEO Abdilkadir's first acts was to move the company's operational headquarters out of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates – where it would still be within the reach of international law enforcement – and into ungoverned Mogadishu.


In early May 2006, Dalsan folded its operations without warning, taking with it not only the $10 million to $30 million in capital invested by individual shareholders, but an estimated $9 million to $12 million in unconsummated money transfers from ordinary customers. Company officials – at least those who can be tracked down – have thus far refused to explain the causes of the shutdown, much less elaborate on the fate of the funds entrusted to them. ".....

[CrazySommies]

"In 2005, Dalsan chairman Mohamed Sheikh Osman, who had been operating out of an East London mosque, was arrested by Kenyan counterterrorism officials, reportedly acting at the behest of Britain's Security Service (MI5), while he transited through that African country."

Shyyyt, even faqash Imamas are jaajuus!

Very good tactic by the MJs though. Just as they were about to go down, they recruited hutus to coerce hutu money from the likes of A Qasim.