London Attacks Should Remind Us of ?Blackhawk Down?

By Bill West

As the investigation into the 7/7 and 7/21 terror attacks in London continues to make headway, we are now learning that at least some of the suspects have links to and are from Somalia. This really should not be surprising, as we have known Somalia has been a hotbed of Islamic radical violence for many years, and has been an African base of operations for al-Qaeda in the past.

Americans have tragically fought Muslim extremists in that fractured, war torn land in the not-so-distant past. The infamous �Blackhawk Down� incident has been claimed as an al-Qaeda victory by Osama bin-Laden; notwithstanding the fact that probably a hundred times as many Somali Islamic radical jihadists died at the hands of those outnumbered brave American soldiers as the other way around. Some al-Qaeda �victory.�

What is a victory for al-Qaeda is the fact that Somalia remains a country without real civilization controlled by warlord factions ruling by the gun. The fact Somalia is mostly Muslim, controlled by violent warlord thugs who are Muslim, and violence and lawlessness is widespread throughout the country, perhaps should say something to other African countries flirting with the idea of doing business with radical jihadists.

The London attacks will no doubt have European Intelligence and law enforcement authorities looking more closely at their immigrant Somali populations for the hopefully small number who have succumbed to the side of extremism and violence. American authorities should reinforce their efforts in that regard, as well. Along those lines, perhaps this is a good time to recall a January 12, 2005 Supreme Court decision, JAMA v. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which I described in a CT Blog article dated January 27.

That decision allows the US Government to deport Somali illegal aliens under final removal orders back to Somalia, even though there is no organized, central government there to accept them back. The decision would apply to other similar countries, but the case specifically dealt with Somalia. Ironically, and interestingly, in April ICE attempted to deport Keyse Jama, the Somali criminal alien who was the subject of the noted Supreme Court case. The Government got Jama all the way back to Somalia, but conditions at the airport were so insecure and unsafe, the escorting security officers could not safely deposit him on the ground, so they turned around and brought him back to the US. I discussed that issue in another Blog article dated April 25.

Given the discovery of the Somali radical Islamic terrorist connections in the London attacks, and the well-established history of radical Islamic terror violence linked to al-Qaeda in Somalia and among Somali aliens who emigrate to the West, the 3500 Somali aliens within the United States who are under final deportation orders should perhaps be given greater scrutiny. Notwithstanding the difficulties that may be faced with physically removing those aliens, at least the minority who are known or believed to be potential security threats should certainly be detained and every effort made to remove them from the United States.

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