Word: warlords
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...need a state. Piracy is their state. Trying to erect a livable society in Somalia would be to confront them with a rival, as we discovered once before. The pirates are not "desperate." They are well fed, crafty and competent. They are the maritime wing of the warlord culture that governs Somalia de facto and does so in such a way that its citizens don't eat. Whatever the root causes of Somali piracy, helping Somalia might be a worthy goal once the pirates are defeated militarily. It is a pointless one until then...
...agents cringe at the bad press, but the warnings aren't surprising, with more than 1,300 murders along the border since January, nearly 90% drug-related. Beheadings and mutilated bodies along roadsides are common news items. In one sensational arrest, the police jailed Santiago Meza Lopez, a drug warlord "disposal expert," who allegedly took hundreds of corpses and dissolved them in tubs of acid. He was known as El Pozolero, or "The Stewmaker." Such a delicious story is difficult for the media to ignore...
...Ironically, events in Somalia last week went quite well from the official U.S. viewpoint. True, it was grating to watch warlord Mohammed Farrah Aidid, whom American soldiers had died trying to capture, hold a press conference with six reporters. Looking dapper in a blue pinstripe shirt and red polka-dot tie and sporting a gold-tipped cane, Aidid congratulated the U.S. on having ''decided to address its past mistakes'' -- meaning its attempts to take him prisoner. The whole point of the U.S. policy shift, however, was to call off the hunt for Aidid, which was widely blamed for converting what...
...national Taliban movement co-opted local grievances. (Taliban, these days, no longer refers just to the regime that once ruled the country; the word has become synonymous with any number of antigovernment forces.) Tribal elders say the fight in the Korengal is directed and funded by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a warlord who was once backed by the U.S. and has links to al-Qaeda. Nevertheless, says valley elder Sham Sher Khan, the way to counter the insurgency hasn't changed. He thinks reopening the timber trade would help. "The Taliban say they are fighting because there are Americans here...
...headed the Northern Valley cartel. After he was arrested in 2007, Montoya presented such a security risk that prison officials decided to house him on a Navy ship off Colombia's Pacific Coast. But during his transfer there, clueless Colombian agents picked up the wrong prisoner, a paramilitary warlord known as Don Berna. After the confusion was cleared up, the two dons were eventually extradited...