As
Somalia
Says It OKs US
Drone Strikes,
Susan Rice
Doesn't
Confirm
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
April 5 -- The
day after the
acting
chief of
Somalia's
mission to the
UN told Inner
City Press
that his
country's
Transitional
Federal
Government has
given approval
to, and gets
prior
notification
of US drone
strikes
against Al
Shabaab,
Inner City
Press
asked US
Ambassador
Susan Rice
about it.
Rice
said she
wouldn't
comment on
intelligence
matters, but
that the US
remains
"extremely
focused" on Al
Shabaab.
Transcript
below.
The Obama
administration's
use of drones
has been a
matter of
controversy
not
only in
Pakistan,
which is
serving on the
UN Security
Council with
the US, but
also in Yemen,
whose human
rights
minister says
she has
complained to
the US about
particular
killings of
civilians.
The
acting chief
of Somalia's
mission, Omar
Jamal, is in
fact neither
the Permanent
Representative
nor Deputy
Permanent
Representative
-- both, Jamal
told Inner
City Press,
are away on
business. But
Jamal made his
comments about
US drones on
camera,
reiterating
that he spoke
for the
TFG.
Last
month when
Amnesty
International
issued a
report on
executions,
Inner City
Press
asked AI's
representative
to the UN
about US drone
strikes, as
rationalized
by Attorney
General Eric
Holder, and
the response
was
that the US
strikes are
not viewed as
judicial
executions.
Inner
City Press was
told that the
US State
Department's
legal
department
might be
responding but
has yet to see
such a
response. Once
aware of
one, it will
be published.
Meanwhile,
the
head of UN
Peacekeeping
Herve Ladsous
proposed in a
closed door
session of the
UN Special
Committee on
Peacekeeping
that the UN
start
using
surveillance
drones, as
exclusively
reported
by Inner City
Press then subsequently
confirmed by
the UN.
A
member of this
C-34 Committee
tells Inner
City Press the
word is that
Ladsous, the
fourth
Frenchman in a
row at the top
of UN
Peacekeeping,
already has
a French
company,
Thales, in
mind. Watch
this site.
From
the US
Mission
transcript:
Inner
City
Press:
Yesterday the
Somali
mission's
first
secretary,
Omar
Jamal, held a
press
conference,
among other
things here.
And he said
that his
government,
the TFG, has
given
permission to
the U.S. to
use
unmanned
aerial
vehicles or
drones to make
strikes in
Somalia
fighting Al
Shabaab. So it
seems sort
of-I wanted to
know, is that
the case? And
what is the
U.S.'s role
itself-I
understand, in
your
national
capacity-in
actually
fighting Al
Shabaab who
has claimed
credit for
this national
theater
bombing?
Ambassador
Rice:
I'm not going
to get into
matters that
relate to
intelligence.
I will say
that the
United States
has been and
remains
extremely
focused-as do
all members of
the
international
community-on
combating
the terrorist
threat that Al
Shabaab poses,
as an active
threat not
only to Somali
but to the
people of the
region and
beyond, in
particular,
given its
active
affiliation
with Al Qaeda.
So we'll
continue to
work with
partners in
Somalia and
beyond to deal
effectively
with the Al
Shabaab
threat.
, 
