Al Jazeera English: Al-Shabab storms CID headquarters in Mogadishu

Al-Shabab attack at Mogadishu hotel kills 15-(Two (2) videos)

Al-Shabab attack at Mogadishu hotel kills 15-(Two (2) videos)

RESEARCH PROPOSAL FOR 1196815:GLOBAL MARKETING AND AL-SHABAAB: HOW A SOMALI BASED PARAMILITARY GROUP HAS PACKAGED ITSELF TO “CONSUMERS” IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

Research proposal I submitted (and then revoked) to the University of Birmingham (UK)

This is a partial copy:

Debra V. Wilson

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USA

Email: 

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ID-Number 1196815

RESEARCH PROPOSAL FOR 1196815

GLOBAL MARKETING AND AL-SHABAAB: HOW A SOMALI BASED PARAMILITARY GROUP HAS PACKAGED ITSELF TO “CONSUMERS” IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH PROJECT

Harakat Shabaab al-Mujahidin or more commonly known as al-Shabaab (the Youth) was the militant wing of the Somali Council of Islamic Courts or (ICU).  By the end of 2006 ICU controlled Mogadishu and most of southern Somalia.  After the loss of most of its territorial holds in the battles of Baidao and Bandiradley the Somali Council of Islamic Courts fled in retreat and splintered.  The less militant members went onto form the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (in late 2007) whilst more militant members regrouped into several more combative prone alliances one of them being al-Shabaab.

Al-Shabaab is a paramilitary group with membership numbering somewhere in the thousands and with somewhat tenuous (often self proclaimed) links to al-Qaeda, believes itself to be a defender of Islam protecting the faith from a range of designated enemies some of them being the Western backed Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG), the African Union Mission to Somalia, (AMISOM), Western NGO’s operating in Somalia, the United Nations, the United States and the United Kingdom and even less conservative/les strict interpretations of Islam.   Members of al-Shabaab also wish to install Sharia law throughout Somalia. Their tactics have run the gamut from suicide bombings to stoning to forced amputations to charitable works in Somalia that include feeding the poor.  Al-Shabaab controls much of southern Somalia.

Until recently al-Shabaab was thought of as a Somali phenomena and problem with little possibility of paramilitary reach beyond its own borders.  That assumption has been proven erroneous.  In a leaked (via Wikileaks) US State Department Nairobi Embassy cable from 2009 the radicalization of UK nationals traveling to Somalia for ‘jihad’ is noted.  In March 2010 UK Home Office proscribed the Somali based group, al- Shabaab.   On 11^th July 2010 al-Shabaab took credit for the World Cup twin bombings in Kampala, Uganda.  And in September 2010 MI5’s Director General, Jonathan Evans warned of the threat of UK youth being radicalized by al-Shabaab and Mr. Evans went onto say that UK security services were aware of more than one hundred UK residents training and fighting in Somalia at the behest of al-Shabaab.

 Al-Shabaab’s violence has not only moved to the global stage so has their recruitment.  My research will explore al-Shabaab’s brand, marketing tools and how this paramilitary group of mostly young males is packaging itself to recruit UK residents.

QUESTIONING AL-SHABAAB’S MARKETING PLAN

1. How does al-Shabaab views itself (its brand) – domestically (in Somalia) and globally?
2.  What is al-Shabaab’s current presence on the internet and in print?  How does al-Shabaab utilise social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube? 
3. From the public’s perspective how does the al-Shabaab brand in Somalia differ from its brand in the in the United Kingdom? 
4. How does al-Shabaab use the global press, foreign security services and foreign governments to further globalise its brand?
5. What marketing tools (including imagery and language) does al-Shabaab’s use in reaching a foreign (UK) consumer base that is mostly young and male?
6. How does al-Shabaab’s select (and market to) the most receptive consumer base in the UK?

Somalia: Under the shadow of al-Shabab - BBC News

Al Jazeera: Somalis fear 'death-sentence' deportations

Source: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/03/somalis-fear-death-sentence-deportations-2014320105055706973.html

Somalis fear 'death-sentence' deportations

The UK has quietly been returning asylum seekers to Mogadishu, despite the threat of al-Shabab. Simon Hooper Last updated: 22 Mar 2014 10:17

A disabled Somali boy holds a poster stating he will never support terrorism at an anti al-Shabab rally [AFP]

London, United Kingdom - When Ismail finally touched down on British soil early last year, after being smuggled over land and through the air from Somalia, he believed he was finally on the verge of beginning a new life. "The Britain I had in mind was one in which they welcomed people of different colour, different religion and different backgrounds and where human rights were respected," Ismail, who preferred not to use his real name, told Al Jazeera. "I wanted to live in a safe place where I could just study and work and help my family and support myself, so what happened to me was a big shock." Less than a year after failing in his bid to claim asylum in the UK, Ismail found himself handcuffed, forcibly placed aboard an airplane bound for the Somali capital, Mogadishu - a journey Ismail holds would have effectively been a death sentence. Ismail is one of a handful of known cases of Somali refugees recently detained and told they are to be returned to their conflict-stricken country, despite the severe security concerns and legal obstacles that have made it virtually impossible until now for British immigration officials to send them home. Members of Somali communities in the UK, as well as campaign groups and solicitors working on behalf of asylum seekers, say they fear these cases point to a tougher approach and a new returns programme at the Home Office, the UK's interior ministry - one that could endanger the lives of many others whose asylum claims are rejected. "When I told people in the Somali community what the Home Office was doing to me they said, 'No, that's impossible, it's unheard of. Nobody is stupid enough to remove people to Mogadishu,'" said Ismail. 'Be quiet' Yet at the end of January, after three weeks in a detention centre near a London airport, Ismail was bundled into a van, pushed aboard a Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul and seated at the back of the plane between three guards tasked with removing him from the UK. I was already resigned to the death sentence that awaited me. I was helpless. I was mentally tortured. Ismail, Somali asylum seeker, "I said, 'Please don't take me back to Somalia. I came here seeking asylum and security. Don't take me to Mogadishu because you are signing my death penalty'. I was shouting and screaming at the other passengers for help. Every time I tried to shout out, they'd twist my fingers to make me be quiet." On arriving in Istanbul, Ismail's escorts asked Turkish immigration officials to place him in a cell. During the flight, he said, they had discussed going sightseeing and "chilling out" in the city while they waited for a connecting flight to Mogadishu. Then one of them received a phone call. Ismail's solicitor had secured a judicial review of his case. Instead of going to Mogadishu, he was flown back to London and returned to another detention centre. "I was already resigned to the death sentence that awaited me," he said. "I was helpless. I was mentally tortured." The UK has long had a policy of returning Somalis whose asylum claims are rejected to less volatile regions of the country that are safely accessible by air, such as Somaliland. But most of the country, including Mogadishu, has long been considered too dangerous as a return destination because of the ongoing conflict between government forces and al-Shabab rebels. But Paul Morris, a volunteer at the Somali Adult Social Care Agency in Manchester, said the UK government appeared to have been emboldened by a European Court of Human Rights judgment in a Swedish case last September, which ruled in favour of allowing repatriations to Mogadishu in circumstances where a returnee was not deemed to be at specific risk. In making that ruling, the court cited a report by Norwegian and Danish immigration authorities that said there had been a general improvement in the security situation. "It's based on a fact-finding mission by a few Nordic bureaucrats who went for about a week and produced a report. It's fatuous," Morris told Al Jazeera. "The judgment came out at the beginning of September. Two weeks later the Westgate attack happened in Nairobi, and al-Shabab proved its power." Increasing attacks Concerns over security in Mogadishu have continued to mount since then. Al-Shabab has shown itself still capable of mounting major attacks in the capital, such as last month's deadly assault on the heavily fortified presidential palace. A report this month by UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon said the security situation remained volatile, with al-Shabab continuing to use "guerrilla and terrorist tactics" and deadly violence occurring almost daily. Al-Shabab continues to launch attacks against the government and civilians in Somalia [AP] Most human rights groups and organisations working on behalf of refugees and asylum seekers still consider Somalia to be an unacceptably dangerous destination. But Morris said the Home Office, in opposing a bail application by a Somali man held in a Scottish detention centre since February, had revealed details of what he believes is a new programme to send Somalis home. "The Home Office can normally only justify detention if there is imminent removal planned," he said. "In the bail summary, they talked about a new pilot project to remove Somalis to Mogadishu. The removal directions were on Turkish Airlines via Istanbul." James McGuinness, an immigration advocate at law firm Jackson & Canter, also highlighted an immigration tribunal decisionin December last year, in which a Somali man's appeal against deportation was rejected on the grounds that the tribunal found nothing to suggest he would face a real risk of suffering serious harm. The tribunal noted that al-Shabab was "no longer the force they once were". "Obviously it's deeply controversial and highly problematic - and the rules counter everything we know about the current situation in Mogadishu," McGuinness told Al Jazeera. "There is a high risk there of indiscriminate violence." Others held Al Jazeera has identified at least three other Somali individuals currently in detention in the UK who, like Ismail, have been told that they are to be returned to Somalia. One of them told Al Jazeera he was a member of a tribal minority who had fled the country in 2012 after seeing all of his immediate family killed. An aunt, his only surviving relative, paid for him to be smuggled by plane to the UK, where his claim for asylum was rejected. Last month he was sent to a detention centre in the England's east and told he would soon be sent home. Like Ismail, he did not want to be identified out of fear that he could be targeted if he was forced back to Mogadishu. "It's very, very tough. There's a lot of people here who have lost their minds. They just lock you up all day, and everyone has something in their heart," he said. "But the biggest fear I have is not to be here, but to be sent back there because I am sure I will never leave. Definitely I think I will die." No Somali is going to think that the British government is so brutal as to send people back, so the people there will assume them to be agents, and the punishment for being a spy or an agent is decapitation. Paul Morris, Somali Adult Social Care Agency Morris said members of the Somali community feared that anyone sent back to Somalia from the UK would face inevitable execution if they fell into the wrong hands. Last year an al-Shabab commander said any Somalis returning from abroad were "working for the infidels" and should face death. "People are really alarmed. They think that to actually be forcibly sent back you haven't got a chance," he said. "No Somali is going to think that the British government is so brutal as to send people back, so the people [in Somalia] will assume them to be agents - and the punishment for being a spy or an agent is decapitation." The Home Office told Al Jazeera it could not confirm whether anyone had been returned to Mogadishu and did not reveal details of return routes for security reasons. "Returns to Somalia and Somaliland have taken place over the past year and we will seek to carry out further removals in the future," said a spokesperson. "However, we regularly review the way in which we do this and are working to develop more effective return routes." The spokesperson said the Home Office could not comment on Ismail's allegations that he was physically abused by his escorts without more details of his case. But his claims appear consistent with a recent UK government report raising concerns that some detainees being removed from the country had been subjected to "disproportionate use of force and restraint and examples of unprofessional behaviour". On his return to the UK, Ismail was held in a detention centre for 30 days. Finally, his solicitor secured his release on bail, on condition that he registered at a Home Office reporting centre every week. He was also electronically tagged. He said he was having nightmares and suffering mental trauma, and had become reclusive and fearful of other people as a consequence of his treatment. "They said to me, 'This isn't finished yet. We are still trying to remove you.' When I go to the reporting centre, I am always sweating and my heart jumps as I enter the building. I don't know what will happen to me. They can detain you any time they want to." Follow Simon Hooper on Twitter: @simonbhooper