by Saeed Shabazz
Staff Writer

NEW YORK (FinalCall.com)�Is Africa the next target of the U.S. war on terrorism?

Activists such as Elombe Brath of the Harlem-based Patrice Lumumba Coalition and Viola Plummer of the December 12th Movement say don�t rule out a strike on Somalia, despite Bush administration denials that an attack is imminent.

Roy Innis, chairman of the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE), and his son Niger Innis left recently for a 10-day tour of three African nations�Sudan, Kenya and Uganda. Mr. Innis told reporters he is "worried that Al-Qaeda will move back into Africa."

Al-Qaeda is the organization alleged terrorist Osama bin Laden masterminded and is the focus of Bush administration�s war on terrorism. So far, the action has been confined to attacks in Afghanistan but the White House has said the battle against "terrorists" is aimed at those groups with a global reach and is not limited to current targets.

Many Blacks fear the next terror war target could be Somalia, a country ravaged by drought, famine and civil war, and the scene of America�s worst military humiliation in years.

"Do you think America�s military people have forgotten October 1993, when 160 Delta Force Rangers engaged Somali warlords in a firefight?" asked Ms. Plummer. Critics say the U.S. military was humiliated in the incident that claimed the lives of U.S. servicemen, and a scene with Somalians dragging a dead soldier through the streets of Mogadishu was shown around the world.

That incident is also the subject of "Blackhawk Down," a major motion picture scheduled for release at Final Call press time.

Somalia is slightly smaller than Texas and borders Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya on Africa�s east coast, an area better known as The Horn of Africa. Some Washington analysts have said an Al-Qaeda cell located in Somalia in 1998 was responsible for the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

The week before the Christmas holidays, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld denied reports that U.S. officials had already decided on military intervention in Somalia.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters Dec. 21 that the goal is to "make sure Somalia does not become a location where [terrorists] could operate, or become a safe haven for terrorists."

"That is the way I would describe our policy�at this point," Mr. Boucher added.

Other government officials are telling reporters: "Africa is the world�s underbelly for global terrorism," inferring that in Somalia nominal control by an unstable regime provides a cloak for anarchy and terror.

"We do not want any country in Africa to become the Black Afghanistan," Mr. Innis told reporters.

On Christmas Day, four British war ships were docked at the Kilindini Harbor, in Nairobi, Kenya. British officials spent their holiday explaining to British news groups that they were there for recreation, not to launch an attack against Somalia. In the meantime, the BBC was also reporting the activity of U.S. Navy ships stopping and searching civilian vessels in Kenya�s Mombassa harbor.

Observers say the earlier shut down of the Al-Barakaat money transfer company, which ostensibly served as Somalia�s banking system, and the naval activity fit descriptions of war on terror tools President Bush has vowed to use.

Mr. Brath believes President Bush is setting the Somalian people up. "The U.S. has established anti-terrorism as the chief rationale for U.S. intervention virtually anywhere in the world," argued Mr. Brath. The new war serves the same imperialist U.S. purpose as anti-communism battles during the Cold War, he added.

"When President Bush declared that the struggle was not only against terrorists but also against states which secure them, it was not hyperbole in the shadow of rage," Ms. Plummer said. This is definitely the new basis of American foreign policy. The worse thing now is the many mixed signals, Ms. Plummer said.

"We have written to the Congressional Black Caucus to see what they have heard, so far no answer," she added.

Somalian President Abdulkassim Salat Hassan insists his government is cooperating with the United States. On Dec. 20, he ordered police to detain seven Iraqis, one Iraqi-Kurd and one Palestinian suspected of taking part in international terrorism, according to press accounts.

On Nov. 24, the transitional government signed an accord with several opposition factions in Somalia and all vowed to cooperate in the fight against terrorism, according to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan�s representative David Stephens.

"What more does the Bush administration want? The average Somali just wants peace in the country, with a viable government," Saeed Fahia, executive director of the Confederation of Somali Communities in Minnesota, told The Final Call. The state is home to some 100,000 Somalis. In Mr. Fahia�s view, "there are no organized (terrorist) groups to target in Somalia."

If real change for Somalia is desired, the U.S. should help the country develop a stable democracy, he said.