PrairiePundit

  Trending Politics: Last year, “Squad” Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN) pledged that she is in office first and foremost to look out for the interests of her fellow Somali immigrants . She’s done a poor job of it, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Omar, who represents a deep-blue district in Minnesota, hails from Somalia and earned her citizenship only after arriving in the U.S. illegally. She has spun her story of hardship into a national profile that’s drawn attention to Minnesota’s burgeoning African Muslim community. But in doing so, the fourth-term lawmaker may have unknowingly put her state’s Somali community in the crosshairs of ICE, which reported on Friday that nearly half of all Somali immigrants in greater Minneapolis are living in the country illegally, according to the NY Post. The fraud, first uncovered in September, spans all types of arrangements — from fake marriages to forged death certificates and other “bizarre” schemes to deceive immigratio...

  Yahoo: US Navy planes recently launched the largest-ever airstrike from an aircraft carrier, dropping 125,000 pounds of ordnance, a top admiral said this week. The USS Harry S. Truman and its strike group "launched the largest airstrike in the history of the world — 125,000 pounds — from a single aircraft carrier into Somalia," Adm. James Kilby, the acting chief of naval operations, said Monday. A defense official told Business Insider the operation — a single bombing run involving about 16 F/A-18 Super Hornets — occurred on February 1 while the Truman was operating in the Red Sea. US Africa Command said in February that airstrikes at the start of the month targeted senior ISIS-Somalia leadership in a series of cave complexes. The military assessed that over a dozen terror operatives were killed. Kilby's comments this week shed more light on the bombardment. US forces have executed dozens of airstrikes this year against ISIS and the Al Qaeda affiliate group al-Shabaab...

  Red State: The United States has conducted "precision air strikes" against at least one member of ISIS leadership in Somalia, according to statements released on Saturday from both President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Like the president's lightning-speed condolence message on Friday night about the Philadelphia plane crash, his announcement came via his X account. ... Good riddance to the ISIS terrorists in Somalia.  It is interesting that they were hiding in caves.

 Daily Mail: REVEALED: ISIS leader killed by SEAL Team 6 in Somalia was responsible for Kabul bombing that claimed lives of 13 US troops - commandos took off from unassuming ship and killed terror leader in hour-long firefight Terrorists are having a harder time avoiding retribution for their actions.  

  Minneapolis Star-Tribune: ... The FBI is investigating an alleged broad scheme to defraud the U.S. Department of Agriculture of tens of millions of dollars in child nutrition spending. Instead of feeding children, court documents allege an array of entities used the money to buy real estate, cars and other luxury items. According to FBI documents unsealed so far, many of the subcontractors under investigation are from the Somali community. ... There is much more. The program was supposed to provide free food to some Somali families but the money was apparently also used for other things.  The amount of money actually taken is stunning.

NY Times: Al Qaeda Branch in Somalia Threatens Americans in East Africa — and Even the U.S. Several ominous signs indicate that the Qaeda affiliate, the Shabab, is seeking to expand its lethal mayhem well beyond its home base, and attack Americans wherever it can. This is another reason to be suspicious of taking in refugees from Somalia.  We are already seeing destructive gang operations in Missesoto where many of them were settled by the Obama administration.   Somalia is a country of poor people with poor leadership.  Whether the current government has the will and the resources to deal with the terrorists is probably in question.

NY Times: Hiding in the Grass: Fear and Confusion as Fighters Overran a U.S. Airfield The brazen Shabab assault at Manda Bay, Kenya, a sleepy seaside base near the Somali border, on Jan. 5 left three Americans dead, raising complex questions about the military’s mission in Africa. Something as large as an airfield usually requires a number of troops to guard its perimeter.  That is not a job for a small special forces unit.  You need infantry troops to be able to patrol the perimeter and mass against assaults on the facility.  I get the impression there was an inadequate number of troops at the facility.

Washington Examiner: Black Hawk Down veterans blast Ilhan Omar for 'smearing' US troops who died 'to help her people'   Veterans of the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu have slammed Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., for accusing them of killing "thousands" of Somalis and ignoring the fact they were engaged in a United Nations mission designed to protect civilians from a murderous warlord following a devastating famine and civil war. She took the side of the terrorists trying to starve people in order to win a war.  One of the strategies used by warlords in that part of Africa is to use food as a weapon and try to starve those who do not support them.

Michael Walsh: This should come as a surprise to no one, except perhaps Minnesotans. Or should I say, " Minnesotans "? More men and boys from a Somali American community in Minneapolis have joined – or attempted to join – a foreign terrorist organization over the last 12 years than any other jurisdiction in the country. FBI stats show 45 Somalis left to join the ranks of either the Somalia-based Islamic insurgency al-Shabab, or the Iraq- and Syria-based ISIS combined. And as of 2018, a dozen more had been arrested with the intention of leaving to support ISIS. Both numbers are far higher than those of alleged terrorist wannabes who left or attempted to leave the country from other areas in the country where Muslim refugees have been resettled. In the case of the Somalis, it's no longer just the men. Early last year, a female was apprehended by authorities on charges of supporting providing material support to Al Qaeda and arson. So what has made the area such a hotb...

Guardian: A US airstrike has killed 60 Islamist extremist fighters in Somalia, in one of the deadliest ever such operations against the al-Shabaab organisation in the unstable eastern African country. The US military said Friday’s airstrike occurred near the al-Shabaab-controlled community of Harardere in Mudug province in the central part of the country. According to its assessment no civilians were injured or killed. It was the most lethal US airstrike the November 2017 attack which killed about 100 al-Shabab fighters. The statement gave no further details about what was targeted, and a US military spokesman said it was not a camp. ... Trump relaxed guidelines intended to prevent civilian casualties and gave local military commanders greater authority in ordering attacks. ... Last year there were 31 such attacks and 15 in 2016, according to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies , a Washington-based research institute. The US Africa Command spokesman said the airstrike h...

Guardian: Dozens of Ugandan soldiers are thought to have been killed when Islamist extremists attacked their base on Sunday in the latest of a series of bloody strikes against peacekeepers in Somalia. Local officials told the Guardian that as many as 46 Ugandan troops, part of the 22,000-strong regional force in Somalia, died in the attack by the al-Qaida affiliated al-Shabaab movement in the town of Bulamarer, 80 miles south-west of the capital, Mogadishu, at around 9am local time. Ugandan officials have said only four soldiers were killed in the attack, which was repulsed with heavy casualties among the extremists. Such attacks are designed to hasten the departure of Amisom, the military and policing coalition under the authority of the African Union, which has been fighting al-Shabaab for more than a decade. Al-Shabaab, which once controlled much of Somalia, wants to topple the western-backed government in Mogadishu. Militants detonated a suicide car bomb at the gate of ...

Telegraph: 'We lost everything'  Millions caught between drought and al-Shabaab at risk of famine in Somalia The famine in Somalia is man-made.  Their weather conditions are not that different from any other country in the region.  What is different is that al-Shabaab goal is to starve those who oppose it.  They are creating a man-made famine the same way they did in the early 90's that led to attempts by the US and aid organizations to provide hunger relief.  The aid shipments were considered an act of war by the terrorists because it struck at the heart of their strategy.  It also led to their attacks on Americans and the Black Hawk Down operation.

Washington Times: A single American military airstrike killed an estimated 100 or more fighters allied with the Somali-based terror group al-Shabab , the Pentagon revealed Tuesday, adding to an an escalating body count as the Trump administration ramps up the counterterrorism campaign in the East African nation. U.S. forces working with the Somalian government on Tuesday confirmed an American sortie against a suspected al- Shabab camp ended with more than 100 fighters dead. The strike, which took place 125 miles west of the Somali capital of Mogadishu, was the largest casualty count racked up by U.S. warplanes operating in Somalia this month. “U.S. forces will continue to use all authorized and appropriate measures to protect Americans and to disable terrorist threats,” via partner nation forces including those with the African Union and Somali federal forces, according to a statement issued by U.S. Africa Command, shortly after Tuesday’s strike. Tuesday’s strike against the al- S...

NY Times: After Huge Truck Bombings, U.S. Steps Up Attacks Against Somali Militants The Trump administration has redoubled its campaign to defeat the Qaeda-backed Shabab, but the group has proved to be a potent and resilient killing force. Somalia has been a failed state for over 25 years at least.  It is such a failed state it is hardly worth saving.  But its value to al Qaeda is that it is too weak to resist its presence.  The US can punish al Qaeda in Somalia with raids by drones and special ops, but that is likely all it is willing to do at this point.

Mark  Moyar: The Trump administration’s new budget outline calls for a 28% cut in funding for the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development. Defenders of USAID insist that foreign aid is vital to advancing U.S. interests. They’re right—but there’s also plenty of waste. On its website, USAID explains that the “Purple My School” program, a joint venture with the United Nations, “encourages peers, teachers and parents to become allies of LGBTI students” in eight Asian countries. “Through teachers’ facilitation, students discuss issues surrounding homophobia, how to create safe spaces for LGBTI students, and are encouraged to wear, draw, or make something purple.” (The acronym stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex.) To promote transgender rights in Central America, USAID has “helped Guatemala’s Election Tribunal update election manuals and provide trainings to electoral officials on how to be sensitive to people whose appearances are...

NY Times: Suspect Is Killed in Attack at Ohio State That Injured 9 A man veered his car onto the sidewalk at the campus, leaped out, and stabbed several people with a butcher knife, law enforcement officials said.   The times seems reluctant to identify the assailant as a Muslim refugee.  It is one of those inconvenient facts that does not fit the liberal narrative that there is nothing to fear from the influx of Muslim refugees.  A court recently sentenced a group of Somalis who were evidently keen on supporting ISIL.  There appears to be no currently effective screening policy to stop the spread of the cancer of radical Islam that infects some of them.

NY Times: Obama Expands War With Al Qaeda to Include Shabab in Somalia The administration’s move to stretch a 2001 war authorization will strengthen Donald J. Trump’s authority to combat thousands of Somali militants, and has drawn objections from some experts. The Obama administration has been actively fighting the terrorist in Somalia for years. There have been several special operation raids as well as bombing attacks against their sanctuaries as well as the pirate havens.  The  Somali terrorists have attacked in Kenya and Somali terrorist recruiting has been active in the Somali immigrant community in Minnesota.

NY Times: In Somalia, U.S. Escalates a Shadow War With lessons from the “Black Hawk Down” battle of 1993, the Obama administration has intensified America’s military role in the past year. The problem in the Black Hawk Down episode involved a fundamental misunderstanding of the war that raged in Somalia.  The US and others thought the famine that took places was a by-product of the war when, in fact, it was a strategic part of the way wars are fought in that part of Africa.  The fighters try to win by starving the opposition  forces and their families. By intervening and providing food, the US was unwittingly taking sides in the war and that is the reason its forces came under attack.  I do not think the Clinton administration ever understood this. The current fighting is mainly by special forces units that are used in raiding attacks on Somali Islamic terrorists.  The Special ops fighters seem to have better intel on what is going on on the ground...

SOFREP News: United States Special Forces have killed more than 30 Al-Shabab militants including senior commanders during two separate security operations in southern Somalia in the past four days. Sources close to the government army told Xinhua on Sunday that the operations which took place on Aug. 10 and 13 targeted insurgents in Sakow town in Middle Jubba region. “The U.S. backed by Somali commandos hit Al-Shabaab targets in Sakow town, killing 30 militants in separate security operations that took place on Aug. 10 and Aug 13. Senior members of the terror group were killed,” the source who declined to be identified told Xinhua by telephone. ... The attack targeted the senior leadership of the group and its spokesman.  The Somali terrorists have staged mass murder attacks in Somalia and Kenya.

Fox News: A U.S. drone strike in Somalia "most likely" killed Hassan Ali Dhoore, a senior leader of the terror group al-Shabab who had planned attacks that killed three Americans overseas, a U.S. official confirmed to Fox News Friday. Dhoore was riding in a vehicle with two other al-Shabab members Thursday evening when the strike took place about 20 miles south of Jilib in southern Somalia, according to a senior U.S. defense official. The Pentagon had been watching him off and on for a long time, the senior official adds, saying the Somali government was involved in sharing information that led to this strike. U.S. officials say Dhoore helped facilitate a deadly Christmas Day 2014 attack at a Somali airport and a March 2015 attack at the Maka Al-Mukarramah Hotel, both in Mogadishu. U.S. citizens were among those killed in the two attacks, the officials said. In addition, investigators linked Dhoore to the assassination of a Somali parliament member who also had U.S....