Children as young as 10 years old increasingly face horrific abuse in war-torn Somalia as the Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab has targeted them to replenish its diminishing ranks of fighters, according to a new Human Rights Watch report.
The report was released ahead of a Somalia conference hosted by the British government. On Thursday, senior representatives from more than 40 governments will converge on London in a diplomatic push to find political solutions to restore stability in Somalia. CNN's Elise Labott explains why attendees are facing a tough and complicated challenge in coordinating an international approach to problems like Somali piracy and terrorism springing from the African nation's many years of lawlessness.
Great Britain is hosting the conference, in part, because Al-Shabaab has been recruiting in the U.K. CNN's Nima Elbajir describes "mini-Mogadishu's" across cities in Britain. These seeming store fronts are actually cafes where Somalis congregate and talk, and possibly where young Somalis are recruited to become terrorists.
Al-Shabaab, which is reportedly tightening its ties to the al Qaeda terror network, is a militant Islamist group that controls much of southern Somalia and is active around the capital, Somalia. It has waged an insurgency against the weak Transitional Federal Government since 2007. More about how the group started
By Carol Cratty
The merger of the Al-Shabaab terrorist group with al Qaeda could "diminish support" for Al-Shabaab within the American Somali community, but it does raise concerns it could further radicalize those sympathetic to al-Shabaab's cause, according to law enforcement officials.
An intelligence bulletin, which was obtained by CNN, was issued by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday. It says the Somali community in the United States "likely will perceive increasing influence from an outside terrorist organization in Somalia as an impediment to stability there."
By Joe Sterling
Al-Shabaab, the Somali militant group, has decided to join the al Qaeda terror network, a monitoring service reported Thursday.
Mukhtar Abu al-Zubeir, leader of the Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen movement, gave his pledge to al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a video released by al Qaeda's media arm, as-Sahab, SITE Monitoring Service said.
"Today, I have glad tidings for the Muslim Ummah that will please the believers and disturb the disbelievers, which is the joining of the Shabaab al-Mujahideen movement in Somalia to Qaedat al-Jihad, to support the jihadi unity against the Zio-Crusader campaign and their assistants amongst the treacherous agent rulers," al-Zawahiri said.
"Muslim Ummah" refers to the Muslim community. Qaedat al-Jihad refers to the central al Qaeda group led by al-Zawahiri.
Al-Shabaab suffered a series of setbacks in recent months: an ouster from the center of the capital, Mogadishu, by African Union and government forces; the killings of key personnel; and combat losses to Kenyan troops. However, the group controls large parts of southern Somalia.
The group, long closely affiliated with al Qaeda, in June endorsed al-Zawahiri to head the group after U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden. It had previously vowed allegiance to bin Laden.
By CNN's Tim Lister and Zain Verjee
Over the past several years, the pirates of Somalia have enjoyed what might be called a following wind. They operate in a country where government authority is weak and in many areas non-existent. They have the longest coastline of any African country to exploit (3,300 kms), and some of the world’s busiest sea-lanes within easy reach. They have a ready pool of recruits, desperate for a share of the millions that they garner from ransoming merchant ships and their crews. And they have had the time and space to get better at piracy, obtaining faster boats and establishing onshore bases – mostly in northern Somalia.
But piracy in Somalia, and the associated abductions, just may have seen its heyday. In the view of John Steed, former head of the UN Counter Piracy unit, Tuesday’s rescue is “potentially a turning point. The international community is saying enough is enough, and the Somali government and regional administration realize that piracy is preventing them from receiving the aid and support their people need.”
Tim Hart of Maritime and Underwater Security Consultants, which is based in the U.K., concurs. “This U.S. Special Forces operation will send a clear message to pirate gangs that states are prepared to take a more robust approach to their actions,” he told CNN.
But that also brings a new element of risk, he says. “When hostages are held onshore, pirates will move captives frequently, sometimes daily, fearing such a raid. The gangs will be concerned of similar attacks and will guard their hostages more closely and aggressively.”
The number of successful hijacks has declined in the past year. In 2010 47 ships were hijacked; last year the figure was 25, according to the EU Naval Force, which co-ordinates naval patrols in the region. This year there have been nine attempted attacks but no seizures. FULL POST
From Raffaello Pantucci, Special to CNN
Editor's note: Raffaello Pantucci is an associate fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) and the author of the forthcoming "We Love Death As You Love Life: Britain's Suburban Mujahedeen" (Hurst/Columbia University Press).
After an explosive festive season that spilled into the New Year and growing stories of increased connections to other regional networks, Nigerian group Boko Haram is likely to be one of the main focuses of attention for counter terrorism experts in this coming year.
While definitively predicting whether it is going to metastasize into a global threat, or remain a regional one, is something dependent on many variable factors, some lessons from other regional violent Islamist networks can be drawn to understand better the general direction Boko Haram is going in.
Three groups are particularly useful to look at: Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in Yemen, al Shabaab in Somalia and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). All three are groups that have a clear globalist violent Islamist rhetoric and varying degrees of connectivity with al Qaeda core in Pakistan. FULL POST
By CNN's Carol Cratty
A former U.S. Army soldier was charged Monday with attempting to travel to Somalia to join the terrorist group Al-Shabaab, according to the Justice Department.
Craig Benedict Baxam, 24, was arrested Friday at Baltimore-Washington International Airport as he returned from a failed effort to get to Somalia, authorities said.
The Maryland resident had an initial court appearance Monday afternoon on the charge of attempting to provide material support to a terrorist group.
The only time Baxam spoke during the hearing was to respond "Yes" when the judge asked if he understood the charge against him and the possible penalty.
Mitchell D. Silber is the author of 'The Al Qaeda Factor: Plots Against the West'. He is also the Director of Intelligence Analysis for the NYPD. His thoughts do not necessarily represent the opinions of the New York City Police Department.
Just over two years since al Qaeda Core launched the most serious plot on American soil since 9/11 (the Najibullah Zazi NYC Subway Plot of September 2009), al Qaeda’s leader and founder Usama bin Laden, al Qaeda’s most recent “Number 3” Attiyah Abd al Rahman, and the al Qaeda instigators of the Zazi Plot – Saleh al Somali and Rashid Rauf – are all dead - a result of a combination of efforts by U.S. Special Forces and drone strikes. In addition, this fall, Anwar al Awlaqi, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s dual-hatted English language propagandist and chief of external operations, was also killed in a drone strike. The natural question to ask, as the calendar approaches 2012, is: wither the al Qaeda threat?
The recent past may provide some useful insights. One of the most important findings of a forensic study of the sixteen most serious al Qaeda plots against the West since 1993 is that al Qaeda plots against the West are almost always underpinned and manned by Westerners - who travel overseas to al Qaeda or an al Qaeda ally/affiliate and then are turned around opportunistically and sent back to target the West. Whether it was the 1999 LAX Millennium Bomber (Montreal), 9/11 Pilots (Hamburg), Shoe Bombers (London), July 7 and 21 2005 London transit system bombers (Leeds and London), 2009 NYC Subway Bombers (New York) or 2009 Underwear Bomber (London), the key operatives from the plot originated in one of the great cities of the West.
Without question, the public's attention in the race for the White House has centered on the economy and domestic issues. It’s a sign of how things have changed since the start of these post-September 11th times. In 2004 and 2008, a good portion of the discussion focused on keeping American safe and foreign policy. But things began to shift as the 2008 election was wrapping up and the economy was hurting.
Now there is no question the campaign talk has moved from 9/11 to 9-9-9 (and other economic plans). A fact not lost on the Republican candidates who spend little time talking about national security issues. Debate after debate, interview after interview, domestic issues have dominated the campaign so far. Until now.
On November 22, CNN, along with AEI and The Heritage Foundation, will host a Republican candidate debate focused on national security topics.
In the run-up to the debate, Security Clearance asked both the sponsoring conservative think tanks to look at the key foreign policy issues and tell us what they want to hear candidates address. From Afghanistan toIraq,ChinatoSyria, cybersecurity to defense spending, the folks at Heritage Foundation and AEI will make sure you are fully prepped for the big debate.
The first in the series will publish today on Security Clearance. For more coverage of the campaign, don't forget to read CNN's Political Ticker and our political section on CNN.com.
By CNN Terrorism Analyst Paul Cruickshank
Not so long ago Abdisalam Ali was a promising student studying medicine at the University of Minnesota. Last Saturday he blew himself up in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. It was the end of a journey into jihad that had begun for Ali as a teenager, and another sign of the appeal of Al Shabaab, the militant Islamic group in Somalia, to young ethnic Somalis overseas.
Ali had come to the United States with his family as a young refugee and lived for a while in Seattle before moving to Minneapolis. But soon after graduating from High School, Ali and several other young men left their homes and families for an uncertain future on the frontlines of an endless war.
News of his death will not surprise many in the Somali American community. According to U.S. counter-terrorism investigators, Ali was the fourth American suicide bomber in Somalia in the last three years, and one of at least sixteen Americans killed while fighting with Al Shabaab – far more than have died fighting for any other foreign terrorist group. Many of the others killed were also from the Minneapolis area – home to some 60,000 Somalis, the biggest community outside East Africa.
It is a trend that has U.S. counter-terrorism officials increasingly concerned because they fear that factions of Al Shabaab closely aligned with al Qaeda may one day try to use such recruits to launch a terrorist attack on American soil. Yet what alarmed officials over the weekend even more than the attack itself, was a message that Ali recorded before it. FULL POST
By the CNN Wire Staff
A suicide bomber who carried out an attack in Somalia this weekend was an American citizen of Somali descent, a website associated with the Al-Shabaab Islamist movement claimed Sunday.
The website named the bombers as Aden al-Ansari and Cabdi Salaam al-Muhajir, and posted what it said was an audio interview with al-Muhajir speaking American-accented English. FULL POST
What's the status of al Qaeda a year after Osama bin Laden's death and what do we know now that we didn't know then? 
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