I was reading the news (AP: “Al-Qaida chief in Somalia may be dead”), and something caught my eye.
Somalia’s Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Aideed said U.S. special forces were needed on the ground as Somali and Ethiopian forces have been unable to capture the last remaining hideouts of suspected extremists.
“The only way we are going to kill or capture the surviving al-Qaida terrorists is for U.S. special forces to go in on the ground,” said Aideed, a former U.S. Marine. “They have the know-how and the right equipment to capture these people.”
Wait, what? Former what?
From Marine to warlord: The strange journey of Hussein Farrah Aidid (AP, 2002)
For Hussein Farrah, the summer of 1996 started with a future rooted in the Los Angeles suburbs: a job with a local council plotting roads, married life interrupted by stints with Marine reserves buddies.
By October, he had added “Aidid” to his name and had led thousands of followers in a Somali stadium celebrating the killings three years earlier of 18 American soldiers hunting his father.
The Accidental Warlord (Peter Maass in Talk, 2000)
He inquires about the presidential election. How is George W. Bush doing? Aideed is very interested in George W. Bush.
“I am a registered Republican,” he explains. “Did you know that?”
Fascinating stuff.