US backing Somali warlords - Part V

I know I have been talking about this alot(1 2), but Newsweek adds a very interesting article on the US's backing of Somali warlords in the recent battles in Mogadishu against the Islamic Courts Union, an Islamic militia working for the imposition of Sharia law in Somalia.

The policy has provoked dissent at both the CIA and the State Department, as well as in Europe. Some officials fear that America may be inadvertently creating a new jihadist haven in Somalia by generating an anti-U.S. backlash. Before the U.S. program began, the Islamists were only a small part of the population. ..... Giraldi is more blunt. "We're creating a new mess," he says. "Everything is tactical with this administration: catching a guy, catching a guy. I don't see that anyone has thought about the strategic issue of losing support." ....

Publicly, the administration will not admit to any policy of aiding warlords. But officials with the Red Cross and other aid groups in Mogadishu report seeing "many Americans with thick necks and short haircuts moving around, carrying big suitcases," says one aid official whose agency does not permit him to speak on the record.

Ah, yes. All the world around, people know that good things always follow those Americans wielding "big suitcases" filled with cash.

UPDATE: "NAIROBI (Reuters) - A top U.S. official handling Somalia has been transferred from his job after criticising payments to warlords that are said to be fuelling some of Mogadishu's worst-ever fighting, diplomats said on Tuesday."