Subject: Star Tribune article Re General Mohamed Abshir Muse

This article by the Star Tribune has been sent to M.M. Afrah by Ali.

Ali wrote: THESE COMMENTS: "I just wanted to to give you some update on how the pro-Western Somali heroes are rewarded in America.
AND IF YOU CAN EXPRESS YOUR VIEWS IN THE TALKING POINT WHICH WE ALL ENJOY."
Ali.

M. M. AFRAH'S VIEWS:

"Dear Ali,
I am not surprised any more about the raw deal the old General received from the INS in his attempt to resettle in the US. General Mohamed Abshir Muse is not alone. My dog-eared records show that former friends of the West received similar duplicity at the hands of their erstwhile protégés who left them in the lurch when they really needed their support and protection. These included Samosa, General Noriega, Marcos, the Shah of Iran, Emperor Haile Selassie, Mobuto Sese Kuku…. The list goes on.

We older Somali citizens still recall how General Abshir, the then flamboyant commandant of the Somali Police Force, helped the Americans during the Cold War when Washington and the then Soviet Union relentlessly fought to control the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, an important oil route from the Gulf and Suez Canal.

We also recall how the US and the West Germany supplied the Somali Police Force with trucks, communications gear, weapons, and advisers, refusing to extend similar assistance to the newly-born Somali National Army. This at a time when the powerful Ethiopian army and air force threatened to attack the infant Somalia in the 1960s-only few months after independence.

I only hope that successive former US Ambassadors in Mogadishu would everything humanely possible to help the aging and ailing General to spend the rest of his life in the US.
GOOD SPEED!

Afrah95@@hotmail.com