VZCZCXYZ0018
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHDS #3212/01 3401451
ZNY CCCCC ZZH (CCY AD570D69 MSI3110 538)
O 061451Z DEC 06
FM AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 3589
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME
INFO RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RHMFISS/CJTF HOA IMMEDIATE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE
RUEKDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE
RHMFISS/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL IMMEDIATE
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE

C O N F I D E N T I A L ADDIS ABABA 003212 
 
SIPDIS 
 
C O R R E C T E D   C O P Y - ADDING THREE ADDRESSEES 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR AF AND AF/E 
LONDON, PARIS, ROME FOR AFRICA WATCHER 
CJTF-HOA FOR POLAD 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/06/2016 
TAGS: PREL PINS NMOPS KPKO SO ET KISL
SUBJECT: SOMALI PRIME MINISTER GEDI HIGHLIGHTS FOREIGN 
EXTREMIST SUPPORT FOR ICU 
 
REF: ADDIS ABABA 3158 
 
Classified By: P/E COUNSELOR KEVIN SULLIVAN.  REASON: 1.4 (B) AND (D). 
 
¶1. (C) SUMMARY.  TFG PM Gedi reported that over 3,000 
foreign Islamic militants are assisting the CIC, including 
fighters from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Chechnya, and Libya. 
Eritrea and Saudi sources have provided weapons and funding 
respectively to the CIC, while Somali Hawiye are 
increasingly backing the TFG.  Collective defense of 
Somalia's TFG is in accordance with its national security 
stabilization plan, endorsed by the IGAD council of 
ministers and the AU PSC, Gedi added.  TFG officials said 
potential TCCs to an IGASOM peacekeeping force include 
Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and even Turkey.  Citing an 
executive order by the CIC to assassinate 16 TFG leaders, 
PM Gedi affirmed that the TFG would not negotiate with 
terrorists, and appealed for USG assistance to interdict 
illegal weapons shipments to Mogadishu, as well as to 
provide the TFG with additional bodyguards.  END SUMMARY. 
 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
COUNCIL OF ISLAMIC COURTS USING FOREIGN FIGHTERS 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶2. (C) In a December 6 meeting with Ambassador and deputy 
pol-econ counselor Eric Wong, Transitional Federal Government 
(TFG) 
of Somalia (TFG) Prime Minister Ali Muhammad Gedi said 
Somalia now faced "a choice between life and death, peace 
and war."  Highlighting the extremist threat posed by the 
Council of Islamic Courts (CIC), Gedi said more than 
three-fourths of the CIC's strength derived from foreign 
fighters, including over 3,000 Islamic militants from 
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Egypt, Chechnya, Comoros, and 
Libya, as well as Ethiopian insurgents.  CIC militia leader 
Adan Hashi Ayro had trained in Afghanistan.  The CIC had 
sent delegations to Islamic countries (including the UAE 
and Kuwait) to declare that dissident Parliamentary speaker 
Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan and 30 MPs were waging jihad 
against the TFG.  Speaker Adan had "defected" for the last 
66 days, Gedi said.  Military engagement of the CIC would 
not require a protracted guerilla war, Gedi said, as such a 
conflict would be primarily against foreign fighters, 
rather than Somali against Somali. 
 
¶3. (C) Somalia's PermRep to the African Union, Amb. 
Abdikarin Farah, noted that as Somalis were predominantly 
Sunni Muslims, it was foreigners who were escalating the 
war.  Saudi sources had provided USD 3-4 million in funds 
to the CIC, Gedi said, delivered through flights from 
Nairobi, accompanied by Eritreans.  Direct flights between 
Asmara and Mogadishu had also provided weapons and 
fighters; Iran was also playing a destabilizing role. 
Opponents were thus receiving illegal shipments of weapons, 
threatening the legitimate government. 
 
¶4. (C) PM Gedi asserted that the vast majority of Hawiye 
supported the TFG.  General Mohamed Warsame Farah, Director 
General of Somali Intelligence and TFG National Security 
Advisor, noted that 70 per cent of some 4,000 troops 
trained in the previous week by the TFG were Hawiye. 
Citing accounts from groups of dozens of escapees who had 
fled from ICU imprisonment to Galcaio and Baidoa, Gen. 
Farah said the CIC attempted to recruit fighters from 
captives it first tortured and then humiliated. 
 
¶5. (C) The TFG had sought to avoid war as much as possible, 
Gedi said.  Underscoring Somalis' right to self-defense, 
Gedi noted that Somalia's national security stabilization 
plan, endorsed by the IGAD council of ministers as well as 
the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC), provided for IGAD, 
the AU, and others to assist the TFG's security forces, and 
for frontline states to train and equip the TFG in 
emergencies.  Amb. Farah observed that Somalia had formally 
adopted a bilateral cooperation treaty with Ethiopia in 
November 2005, and had similar agreements with Kenya and 
Djibouti.  Yemen would likely assist the TFG, if the arms 
embargo were lifted, Gedi said.  Potential troop 
contributing countries to IGASOM included Nigeria, South 
Africa, Uganda, and possibly Kenya.  According to Gedi, 
Nigeria's President Obasanjo strongly supported lifting the 
 
 
arms embargo on Somalia and had said "Tell Meles he is not 
alone," offering to deploy 1,800 Nigerian troops for 
IGASOM.  If intervention were authorized by the UNSC, 
Turkey, as a member of the Organization of Islamic 
Conference (OIC), may also send troops, Amb. Farah said. 
 
---------------------------------------- 
TFG WILL NOT NEGOTIATE WITH "TERRORISTS" 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (C) Ethiopian deputy FM Tekeda, who met CIC 
representatives in Djibouti on December 1 (reftel), had 
concluded the CIC was not ready for dialogue, Gedi said. 
Gedi observed that the December 2 CIC-IGAD Secretariat 
communique reported on consultations chaired by IGAD 
Executive Secretary Dr. Attalla Hamad Bashir, a Sudanese 
who supported the CIC; in contrast, IGAD at the ministerial 
level had previously endorsed the deployment of IGASOM. 
The CIC would attack if a UNSCR on IGASOM deployment was 
adopted, Gedi added, initially facing Ethiopian and Kenya 
forces, and then those from other partners. 
 
¶7. (C) PM Gedi said it was useless for the TFG to negotiate 
or seek compromise with CIC leaders, who sought the TFG's 
overthrow and the restoration of a "greater Somalia". 
"Sitting with Aweys is like sitting with Bin Laden," Gedi 
said; "we are not talking about 'Islamic courts,' we are 
talking about terrorists."  Despite the TFG's agreement to 
participate in three rounds of talks with the CIC, the CIC 
had continually seized additional territory, and was buying 
time to attack.  Ethiopia had taken the correct decision to 
back the TFG, recognizing that the national security of 
countries in the region was interlinked.  While Ethiopia 
had trained 9-10,000 Somali TFG military forces, they were 
poorly equipped; lifting the UNSC arms embargo was a 
mechanism to arm trained forces to defend Somalia. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
CIC LIST TARGETS TFG AND SOMALILANDERS FOR ASSASSINATION 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
 
¶8. (C) Amb. Farah provided Ambassador with a copy of an 
Arabic-language executive order reportedly issued by CIC 
leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys in Mogadishu, that calls 
for the assassination of 16 TFG and Somaliland leaders 
(including President Yusuf, PM Gedi, and Amb. Farah) and 
for Al-Shabab "martyrs" to "execute the operations using 
the most deadly suicide methods carried out by mujahidin 
fighters in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and other 
countries of the world" (septel).  Kenya had trained 200 
VIP protection officers (now serving as police securing 
Baidoa), while Ethiopia had trained 50.  With funding from 
UNDP, Kenya and Uganda had trained 1,000 police. 
 
¶9. (C) TFG relations with Puntland authorities, who were 
part of the TFG, were good, PM Gedi said.  Three Somaliland 
ministers had called on PM Gedi in Addis.  Gedi cautioned, 
however, that international recognition of Somaliland could 
impair the unity of Somalia.  The TFG favored the 
reconstruction of Somaliland, but only after the defeat of 
their common terrorist enemy. 
 
¶10. (C) REQUESTS FOR USG ASSISTANCE:  Noting that he had 
previously worked at the AU on a USAID-funded project, PM 
Gedi expressed appreciation for USG support and for 
humanitarian assistance provided through UNICEF and WFP. 
In contrast, he said, Italy was collaborating with CIC 
leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's Ayr sub-clan to thwart peace, 
just as it had leaked information to General Aideed's 
Habr-Gedir sub-clan to thwart UNOSOM in 1992.  TFG 
principals made the following requests for material USG 
assistance: 
 
-- USG assistance was needed to blockade Mogadishu's port 
and airport, Amb. Farah said.  Gedi noted that the TFG had 
previously provided former U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Bellamy 
with 
written authorization to intercept illicit shipping in the 
Indian Ocean, to distinguish between commercial goods and 
smuggled weapons. 
 
-- Observing that he had already survived two assassination 
 
 
attempts, Gedi appealed for USG assistance to train and 
equip 200-300 bodyguards for himself and President Yusuf. 
Gen. Farah said additional funds were needed to provide 
Ethiopian trainers in Baidoa with facilities. 
YAMAMOTO