Abu Aardvark: Is US playing to the al Qaeda script in Somalia?

[BurtWorm]

http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark/2007/01/us_strikes_in_s.html

Check out this screen capture from al-Jazeera this morning:



Interesting on all kinds of levels. Seeing the CNN feed on al-Jazeera like that is a nice graphic demonstration of how far media globalization has gone. But more important is the origin of the images themselves. That CNN actually got live images of the US airstrike is kind of remarkable - was it not a secret mission? Did CNN just happen to have cameras hanging around a suspected al-Qaeda base in Somalia? Or was the strike meant for public consumption, and the US military wanted the cameras to capture it?

If the latter, all I can say is "huh"... because the emerging press coverage of US military support for Ethiopia, along with these images of a direct US airstrike inside Somalia, are nicely feeding the al-Qaeda narrative placing Somalia within the wider framework of American assaults against Islam: "I am here calling upon the Muslim ummah in Somalia to resist in this new battlefield of the Crusader's war, which is launched by America, its allies, and the United Nations against Islam and the Muslims," as Ayman al-Zawahiri's most recent short tape put it. Wouldn't it have made sense to try and combat that narrative, and keep the United States out of the Somalia issue as much as possible, rather than highlight the American role and confirm the al-Qaeda narrative?

[Rick Myers]

1. Besides choppers, it is reported an AC-130 gunship was used!

Where the Hell did it fly from??? Yes, they can refuel in-flight, but I can't imagine banging around in a Herky for 10 hours!

Diego Garcia? Somewhere in the Gulf region? Italy?