AL-SHABAAB TRIES TO TAKE CONTROL IN SOMALIA.

• Author: Schoonover, Brenda B.

Author, David Shinn, former ambassador to Ethiopia and the U.S. State Department's coordinator for Somalia during the international intervention in the 1990s, has presented an insightful essay on the extremist organization, Somali-based al-Shabaab, a breakaway faction from Islamist groups pre-dating Somalia's independence. Al-Shabaab, meaning "The Youth," came into its own in 2003 as a Salafi-jihadist movement and was placed on the State Department's list of terrorist organizations in 2008.

Shinn reports that al-Shabaab, which has links to al Qaeda, has an estimated armed strength ranging from 3,000 to 7000 and can mobilize larger numbers on short notice. With control over most of southern and central Somalia, al-Shabaab is credited with filling a security vacuum since 2007 and establishing a degree of national stability. One of its intentions is to take over Somalia's fledgling Transitional Federal Government (TFG), currently supported by the African Union, the Arab League, the European Union and the United States. Another goal is to attack the United States.

The author has determined that al-Shabaab's leadership is "strongly influenced by those with foreign ties." Though the top three are Somalis, foreigners fill many other key positions. Its executive council has 42 Somalis and 43...