The Ignoble Betrayal of Colonel Abdikarim Muse (Qalbi-dhagax)

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

By Heikal Kenneded

Somalis around the world are quite stunned about the controversy of illegal extradition of a Somali national to the repressive Ethiopian authorities.  The revelations came as Colonel Abdikarim Sheikh Muse, known as Qalbi-dhagax who was recently captured while on a short visit in the Galmudug region – in the town of Adado for family matters. He was initially suspected of being part of the Al-Shabab terrorist group and haphazardly thrown in jail, according to reliable sources. However, when his name was checked against the database of Ethiopian list of terrorists, he was suspected as a designated terrorist leader of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF). Interestingly, the situation get out of hand when high ranking security officials in Mogadishu became aware last week about the secret venal negotiations between the Galmudug regional officials with the Ethiopian government in the handover of Colonel Qalbi-dhagax, which allegedly involved money bribery.  The same sources allege the highest Somali national security forces visited the town of Adado to take over the situation and immediately put Qalbi-dhagax in a military aircraft and delivered him in Mogadishu on Sunday and then transferred him to an Ethiopian base in Baidoa on the following Monday, and eventually to Ethiopia. Colonel Qalbi-dhagax ‘s extradition is an opening gambit for Somalia’s diplomatic relationship with Ethiopia.

So far, the Somali government declined to comment on the important questions of why, how and whose decision was the illegal extradition of Colonel Qalbi-dhagax to the Ethiopian government. But ironically the only concrete comment regarding this issue was made by the Ethiopian Communication Minister who declared that the Somali authorities handed them over Colonel Qalbi-dhagax.  it’s alleged that Ethiopia demanded that Colonel Qalbi-dhagax should be extradited to Ethiopia for his involvement in plotting terror attacks in various parts of Ethiopia and allegedly being the mastermind behind the Apr 24, 2007 – when ONLF gunmen launched an attack on the oil field in the Ogaden regional state, where a Chinese company was exploring for oil and thus allegedly killed 65 Ethiopian employees. Still, the Somali government should have required like any sovereign entity to see any substantial evidence to hand him over to Ethiopia, instead of now enduring so much controversy in the public arena.


If President Farmajo doesn’t change course and directly speak to the public about this horrendous blunder of his government and immediately sack all high ranking official and security elements involved in this case, he would allow to lose the unprecedented public support that he achieved in his presidential election. The public would prefer to the let the president absolve himself and explain what exactly happened, instead of allowing the social media to fester with unfounded innuendos.  President Farmajo is rallied behind because he was his own man and would never succumb to the pressures of the hegemony of the Ethiopian authoritarian regime

But for now, President Farmajo seems grimly to practice what other Somali regional leaders have been practicing in the past to appease the draconian Ethiopian regime in order to secure their power. He is merely acting on the proposition to extradite whoever the Ethiopian government accuses of terrorism, despite any due process. In taking this step, President Farmajo is not only betraying the Somali constitution that he swore to uphold, but also the unwavering support of the Somali public both in the country and in the diaspora who wholeheartedly rallied behind his recent election. Now, it’s quite distressing to see that President Farmajo’s men are allegedly in dock over the illegal extradition of a Somali national to Ethiopia.

Speaking to reporters on his quarterly media chat, last week Prime Minister Hassan Kheyre was asked the serious allegations of handing over Colonel Qalbi-dhagax to Ethiopia, but the microphone was unceremoniously highjacked by the head of the country’s national security officer, Abdullahi Mohamed Ali Sanbololshe’s who claimed that this was a “serious” issue and the government will comment at an appropriate time. Then the Prime Minister declined to further comment on the issue, in complete agreement of Sanbololshe. Nevertheless, this political gaffe has also exposed sharp differences between President Farmajo and his subordinates, which represents an opening for the enemy.  Though President Farmajo’s defenders may point to either being set up by the corrupted Ethiopian government or being undermined by his incorrigible subordinates.

It’s alleged the security forces of the Somali Government orchestrated this egregious handover of Colonel Qalbi-dhagax to the repressive Ethiopian government in order to appease its meddling of the Somali regional politics, according to Somali intelligence officials.  Nevertheless, President Farmajo cannot absolve himself of any wrong doing because no matter who was responsible of this egregious act of illegal extradition of a Somali national to the enemy of the state, the buck stops with him. Since there is so much hysteria and misinformation, the President needs to clear the air and start separating fact from fiction, because no one else will do that for him.

Historically, Ethiopia has repeatedly charged that its troops are in Somalia mainly because of security reasons to protect its borders and further alleged the successive Somali governments are not equipped of containing such security threats. Intelligence officials said their working theory since this incident is that either President Farmajo or Prime Minister Hassan Kheyre during their most recent visit to Ethiopia made a pact with the government of Ethiopia to extradite any alleged terrorists to Ethiopia. In this pretext, Ethiopia justifies its naked invasion on Somalia territory.

In justifying the alleged kidnapping of Colonel Qalbi-dhagax, Ethiopia alleges that he is a high-ranking member of the ONLF rebel group that wages war against their repressive government. Even this is a big stretch, and it is not enough for the Somali government to commit such criminal act of extrajudicial extradition. Because most people who closely know the history of Colonel Qalbi-dhagax assert that he has devoted most of his military career in defending the Somali unity and joined the Somali army at the age of 17 years old. Further, he was a resident of the capital for the past three years, where he peacefully lived and committed no crimes, known to anyone. In the end, this illegal extradition incident will most likely open a bitter feud among the country’s different branches of government that might simmer for months, which in the end has the potential of destabilizing the country.

Again, the question that is on everyone’s lips is who from the Somali Government meted out this gross injustice to Colonel Qalbi-dhagax? Is there a cabal of crooks working in Somalia for extradition related cases?

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Heikal Kenneded
heikalk@yahoo.com
Washington D.C.

President Farmajo’s Delicate Balancing Act

President Farmajo’s Delicate Balancing Act

By Heikal I. Kenneded

Monday, July 24, 2017

President Farmajo came to office scarcely five months ago.  His election was a transformational moment for Somalia has rarely appeared more united than when he was elected as a president.  He campaigned to eradicate corruption from the ranks of government and more importantly to either bring the Al-Shabab terrorists into the fold or wipe them out. Yet he had many more challenges awaiting him, inheriting a country in disarray, politically deadlocked and financially strained, not to mention a dismal state of insecurity.  The biggest single problem for the president, however, has been the fight against corruption as a broader strategy against terrorism.  Nonetheless, his recent declaration of waging war against the Al-Shabab terrorists while dressed in military fatigues and the subsequent flawed disarmament of the capital’s remnant warlords from illegal arms were a bit misplaced and rather naïve.  The real culprit sustaining the intransigent Al-Shabab terrorists in the country is the shadowy and unregulated finance methods based on mobile money-transfer system that they use to finance their deadly attacks.  Unless the government goes after the illegal resources funding these terrorists, their efforts will be futile.  The fight against corruption as a first-order national security priority must be able to follow the trail of the money.  The government has to find a way to completely take control of the flow of money inside the country and that will mean reining in the elusive mobile money-transfer system, while revitalizing the traditional formal banking system. Categorically, mobile payment system has become the bank of choice for the terrorists, which is firmly controlled by rogue businessmen who neither care about country nor freedom, but President Farmajo’s government should strive to reverse this risky finance system.

 If President Farmajo wishes to be more pragmatic than his predecessors in prioritizing the security and financial transparency of the country, then he needs to be very careful not to get caught up in a trap of his predecessors’ making by succumbing to the country’s Big Business entrapments.  Though, a government like Somalia with a fledgling economy is bound to find itself at the mercy of local Big Businesses for loans and financial support.  But alos at the same time to come hard against their butter and bread that’s a delicate balancing act.  In fact, how President Farmajo handles that very balancing act may determine the future success or failure of his government.  In other words, fighting terrorism and corruption without alienating Big Businesses is a very tricky balance.  Most experts on terrorism agree that long gone are the days of trying to defeat terrorists by waging a war, but disrupting their supply of finance should be the most critical target. On the other hand, those arguing how the services provided by the telecom industry and Big Businesses’ economic contribution to the development of the country in general to outweigh the security of the country are merely hardened capitalists who care nothing about peace and the safety of generations to come.

The President still has time to learn from the mistakes by his predecessors; unless he’s too squeamish to stand up to these rogue capitalists and see them in their true color – war profiteers.  For the moment, the President is moving cautiously in the direction of financial reform as his administration reprints the country’s first Somali Shilling notes in more than a quarter century, while trying to collect local taxes.  The most astonishing aspect of Al-Shabab’s resilience for the last decade is despite under severe pressure, they still manage to wreak havoc on Somali societies most vulnerable.  More fundamentally, these terrorist are increasingly financing themselves and disrupting their supply of finance is a critical issue.  Hence, the efforts to clamper money-laundering and counter-terrorism through the digital system should go hand in hand and the government will be able to kill two birds with one stone. Of course, the country’s very powerful telecom companies will surely retaliate and resist such necessary regulatory changes that will most likely strangulate their businesses.  What form could such regulations take?  First, instead of asking telecom and wire-transfer companies to self-regulate, ask them to get in sync with the country’s telecommunication and banking regulatory framework and become accountable to the country’s laws. Because if these companies are allowed to continue in their current lazes faire trend, they are bound to run the country to the ground.

It’s no coincidence that mobile money-transfer systems are most prevalent in countries with feeble financial laws and failed states like Somalia with either little or no enforcement against financial fraud and money-laundering schemes.  The sole reason that customers regularly need not to prove their true identity is what draws terrorists to launder their illicit finances through the mobile money-transfer system.  The fact is that, the entire mobile money transfer process often circumvents a country’s financial reporting system, which makes it almost impossible for government authorities to take a stock of these subtle digital transactions.  The government has every right to track and trace all digital financial transactions in relation to terrorism and money-laundering.  This will require, however, the Somali government to first seek assistance with the formidable technological know-how necessary to detecting and monitoring these elusive transactions.

The Dilemma

Since the collapse of the Somali nation-state, coupled with the disappearance of the federal financial banking system, money laundering and terrorism have thrived with the advance of using mobile money transfer system.  It’s a high time that the new Somali government administration shift its gears to monitoring the flow of digital funds that finances terrorism. Since these transactions are made through mobile phones and text messages, there’s naturally no way to trace them, let alone secure proof for prosecutions.  The current federal government should incorporate a concrete financial instrument of national power in their efforts to combat terrorism and corruption.  Unscrupulous money laundering throughout the country and mafia style of levying businesses illicit taxation that foster terrorism finance measures have significantly hamstrung the current struggle to uproot terrorism in Somalia. 

During the past decade, Al-Shabab operatives have mainly financed their terrorist operations and supported their networks by borrowing a page from the Mafia-style shakedowns of local businesses that pay monthly “zakat” donations for protection.  In fact, it’s no secret that most of Mogadishu’s major businesses that recent years became major targets for terrorist attacks were the ones who either delayed or declined their monthly extortions levied by the Al-Shabab for whom threats, intimidation, extortion and violence have become a modus operandi. Similarly, reigning on the hawala wire transfer system, as most developed countries have carried out recently is worth duplicating.  In other words, following the money trail and surveillance of facilitators, like the telecom industry and hawala wire transfer companies in their involvement efforts to move and shelter money for terrorist and criminal groups, it will produce critical financial intelligence that will lead to the weakening of illicit actors such as Al Shabab and other corruption agents.

Although mobile money transfers system has provided Somalis with a lifeline to remittances from around the globe, not to mention with unprecedented access to goods, services, capital and information – better, faster, and cheaper. In fact, greater efficiency in wiring money has sustained the country’s fragile economy during the past quarter century.  Millions of Somalis now use their mobile phones to manage their finances and their numbers are growing daily. Despite all the great benefits resulting from a better access to capital, the dark side of mobile money transfer concurrently has sanctioned and empowered terrorism, crime, and corruption around the country.  In other words, while mobile money transfer promotes greater access to capital and livelihood, on the same vein it sponsors illicit activities that render impossible for traditional investigative tools like “following the money trail” for the government to better understand, detect, disrupt and dismantle these illicit networks that eventually sponsor terrorism.  Thus, closely auditing the digital financial flows around the country should be paramount in fighting against the intransigent Al-Shabab terrorism.

Dozens of street-corner shops in Mogadishu sell hundreds of thousands of mobile-phone airtime and thus having a strong command of the county’s hard currency, and yet not accountable to any government regulations.  It’s no secret that these telecom companies have made unholy alliances with the Al-Shabab terrorists for protection.  Since annually an estimated $1.4 billion of Somalia’s GDP out of $6 billion of imports comes from in the form of remittances from Somalis living in the diaspora, there’s a huge risk of falling into the hands of terrorists. Since customers trade cash for virtual charge that goes into their phone, which becomes an electronic account.  These customers can then pay bills, buy essentials, transfer funds and more importantly receive credit on their phones.  Besides being easy to use, it’s usually virtually way less transparent than traditional money-transfer services.  Thus, it’s no wonder that the Al-Shabab terrorists found a safe-haven in these impersonalized financial transactions to run their extortion businesses that finances their deadly attacks.  In lieu of this risk, the current Somali government has to do broad consultations with both the private and public sectors in order to assure investors on what this will mean for trade and business.

The ultimate question is whether anything can be done to curb the telecom companies that collude and facilitate terrorist activities.  The answer is surely yes.  The previous governments have obviously underestimated the potential threat presented by these unregulated telecom companies and their dangerous involvement with the terrorists than many have realized, and it is high time to confront them with the urgency, intensity, and resources they deserve.  In doing so, President Farmajo can help rebuild a Somali society that is not only more transparent and accountable, but also more secure and safe from the existential threat of terrorism.

Finally, President Farmajo’s government faces a stark choice to either appease the country’s strong Big Business, including telecom companies like Hormud and Dahabshil, or to honestly curb the horrible atrocities daily visited on Mogadishu’s residents by Al-Shabab, by any means necessary.  These resilient terrorists have proven time and time again they cannot be easily dislodged from their hideouts by the muzzle of the gun or intense drone attacks to root them out.  A paradigm shift is needed from the current Somali government to fight terrorism and there’s no better place to start with reigning in the country’s incorrigible telecom companies. Telecom companies to be in compliance they need to closely work with the federal telecommunication ministry, the National Bank and other financial regulators to review the systems and regulations in place to ensure they meet the highest national financial standards. The same strict regulatory standards should be imposed on remittance wiring companies like the hawala for international funds transfers in order to control any potential illicit wiring to terrorists. 

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Heikal I. Kenneded

heiakalk@yahoo.com

Washington D.C.

Somalia: No Country for Honest Men

“Every nation gets the government it deserves”

Thursday, January 26, 2017

By Heikal I. Kenneded

                                             Somalia presidential candidates. 

In more than three trips to Somalia over the past five years, I’ve come to rewrite my own perception of where the country is headed and it doesn’t look promising because the future of Somalia looks gloomier than at any time in post-civil war era. Despite the positive tone of my past comments of the country and much of what I often write about Somalia, especially my belief that Somalia is on the mend to recover from its horrific collapse. Regrettably on my most recent trip, I did find myself tormenting more and more about the dismal record of current cadre of leadership who are in power, not to mention those others who are vying to run the country. Just when things seem as though they can’t get any worse in Somalia, the country finds itself much worse predicament that puts everyone else on the edge. The picture is not only disturbing but rather disheartening because the country’s economy remains fragile at best, as recovery continues to be hampered by the challenging security environment posed by Al-Shabab and widespread corruption that pervades every sector of the country from the highest government officials to local security forces to non-government institutions (NGOs), not to mention avaricious money-lords who privatized most of the basic services, including telecommunication, healthcare, schools, power plants, banking and even created their own private security forces. As a result, I came to the kernel truth of how Somalia has become a den for corrupt politicians backed by merciless businessmen who would not hesitate to run the country to the ground in order to enrich themselves and there’s no place for honest men or women. Corruption is the single biggest threat to Somalia’s path towards a lasting peace and prosperity.


I flew into Mogadishu in the week leading to the elections for the Speaker of the parliament and his deputies and I saw it with my own eyes the vicious political wheeling and dealing among the country’s political elites who eventually elected two out of the three officials from the last parliament to their old seats. Ironically, in a country where no significant wages were paid in the last seven months to both the security forces and the civil service employees, including the MPs, a great deal of money is floating around in the capital. On daily basis, expensive parties are thrown throughout Mogadishu's hotels, where presidential candidates backed by foreign elements are readily spending a huge amount of cash in order to court MPs' vote in their favor. If it's any indication of the recent parliamentarian elections that has revealed how financial factor is the sole driver of winning their seats by a great majority of members of the parliament (MPs), there's a little chance that they will abide the constitution and elect the best candidate for the job. This will have the catastrophic consequence of throwing back the country in the back burner and risking both the territorial and maritime of Somalia to get annexed by neighboring countries, who have been eyeing for a long time Somalia’s exceptional strategic location and abundant natural resources.

A City of Two Tales 
Mogadishu is fast becoming a city defined by its disparate lives – those few high profile corrupt politicians and money-lords who live the lavish lives, as millions of the populace struggle to get by as they are deprived of basic necessities, such food, clean water, sanitation, housing and access to healthcare and proper education.  In effect, corruption in the country has created unprecedented extreme poverty and exclusion. Shortly after I arrived at the capital, I decided to take a tour around the city and it would be an understatement to say the least that I was shocked to witness the extensive level of gun culture of various forces in full army gear riding in the back of their pickup trucks. I drove by the military bases of various security forces that didn’t’ report to the government but rather were financed and trained by different foreign governments, including the UAE and the U.S. I felt as though I descended into a scene of the Mad Max movie set, where gunmen ruled the day. Despite the overload of security forces in the capital, attacks from Al-Shabab have not been averted and the city is as highly explosive as ever.

Paradoxically, the increased security throughout the capital and much of the rest of the country has resulted in more insecurity for others in Somalia, as this stepped-up protective presence has seemed to backfire. One of the tragedies that I witnessed during my first week of visiting the country's capital involved between a family man accompanied by his two sons who just returned from the Friday prayers and in the midst of the city's traffic jam when his car got a bit "too close" to the vehicle transporting one of those "self-important" MPs. These trigger-happy security details instantly opened fire and fatally shot the poor civilian in the midst of his children in the car to witness such carnage. In fact, the city's streets are occupied by such pickup trucks laden with gun wielding military men ready to shoot in the first instance of suspecting a threat towards their “Big Man.” Interestingly, I visited the dwelling places of several such "self-important" high profile government officials and I was taken back the number of gunmen safeguarding their houses, sometimes exceeding over two-dozen gunmen. No wonder such cosseted government officials cared little about the country's serious security lapses, as long as they retreat to their own silos, where they are lavishly catered to a life full of debauchery and selfishness. This reminded me of 1980s prewar Somalia during the waning era of the Siyad Barre regime, when corrupt high profile government officials partied like it was 1999, until it was too late to repent and the entire nation-state collapsed. Needless to say the country has a long way to go in recovering from the ravages of the last two decades of civil war.

An Improvised Visit to Baidoa

Disillusioned of what I have seen in the capital, I decided to travel outside of Mogadishu and paid an spontaneous visit to Baidoa, where I had anticipated encountering a much more serene environment and more political progress towards stability and peace. As soon as I landed at the city’s makeshift airport, I was disappointed by the sheer dominance of the Ethiopian forces who manned every security checkpoint with total control of the airport and its adjacent U.N compound. Upon my arrival in the heart of the city, dust seemed to blow from every corner of town and when I wondered aloud how come the city had no single paved road.  I was shocked to learn that few years ago the Turkish government offered to pave the city’s streets for free, but became disenchanted after both the governor and mayor at the time demanded to get paid the specific amount of $70,000 U.S dollars in bribes. Mind you this is a region in the country, where safe water is still one of the most difficult commodities to come by due to below-average rains during the last rainy seasons. The scarcity of this essential resource continues to challenge the health of the locals who as of late were hard hit by an epidemic of cholera. Unfortunately, women and children are particularly hard hit, especially in areas experiencing continued food insecurity and conflict. In fact, a close friend of mine confided in me that on a daily basis an estimated 30 people die of cholera. However, neither the regional authorities nor the federal government has yet to declare an emergency status of such an outbreak and set up cholera treatment units, but rather busy with their fraudulent political campaigns.

The Way Forward

In the end, every nation gets the government it deserves and I’m sure the Somali people are no different that they must deserve the kind of leadership that emerges among them in every few years who take them back to another miserable decade of decadence and poverty.  If Somalia is to circumvent its current political quagmire and destabilizing insecurity that has paralyzed every sector of the society, the people have to strive in electing honest leaders, instead of voting with either their pockets or clan allegiance.  Indeed, the impending presidential election offers such an opportunity that will test the will of the newly elected 329 parliamentarians to give their votes to the most honest and capable leader among the candidates.  Another urgent task that the new houses of parliament should tackle is passing a legislation to establish an Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate against all those politicians who live beyond their means and graft on all public sectors. No one should be above the law and policymakers should lead by example to the people. Nonetheless, if they fail to do so and ignore the historical duty encumbered upon them, Somalia and its people risk an existential threat that might wipe them out from the face of the earth. Because the county can no longer afford another four lackluster years of political logjam and full of corruption, a real change is needed.


Heikal I. Kenneded
heikalk@yahoo.com
Washington D.C