Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Security companies eye Somalia

  (From Intelligence Online) -"In anticipation of NATO’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014, leading private security firms are looking for new business opportunities. Given the major investment that the Pentagon is making at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, some think Somalia could be a good bet. GardaWorld, the international arm of the Canadian security group Garda, is planning to open an office in Mogadishu.

Only a handful of private security companies are currently present in Somalia. Bancroft Global Development is supervising the African Union contingent’s training of the future Somali army, with funding from the US. Another outfit, PAE Government Services, runs the Camp Lemonnier base and carries out occasional missions for the Pentagon in Somalia.

One contract is currently up for grabs in Somalia: training and mentoring the Puntland Maritime Police Force (PMPF). The unit, which was supervised until recently by Sterling Corporate Services with financing from the United Arab Emirates, is in charge of combating pirates in the autonomous province of Puntland".

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

The origins of Jabhat al-Nusra?


In an article, quoting abu Basir al-Tartusi (Abd-al Mun'em Mustafa Halima), a Syrian jihadi cleric and theoretician, researcher Francois Burgat underlines the mystery surrounding the origin of the Syrian Jihadi movement Jabhat al Nusra. This is a rough translation of the online speech of Abu Basir.  "I've never heard of this group or those who run it. This does not mean that its fighters are not sincere and genuine. We face an infidel tyrant ( President Assad), who is illegitimate and criminal. He does not hesitate to play all sorts of roles to stay in power - including using the Mujahideen.  He has already used this type of process in the 1980s… which led dozens of young Syrians behind bars”.  Al Tartusi also underlines the fact that regular Syrian can fight openly while members of Jabhat al-Nusra hide behinds masks. He also criticizes the discourse adopted by the group, critical to the Syrian population’s appeal to the international community. Jabhat al-Nusra had previously said that appealing to the  international community was a “rare perversion, an absolute crime, a supreme calamity”.

While there is a possibility that Jabhat al-Nusra might have been originally a spawn of the Syrian intelligence, it is clear now, that with the multiple defections within the secret services and the current chaos reigning on Syria, it has opted for its own agenda…