Saturday, May 14, 2011
“Shortly after bin Laden died, I got a death threat” in reaction to the terrorist leader’s killing by American forces, said Mohamed A. Mohamed, a former state employee who left his job in Buffalo to serve in his homeland last year.
Mohamed traveled to Capitol Hill on Thursday to tell lawmakers that the threat from al- Qaida remains, and that Somalia’s interim government needs more help and more time to stabilize the long-troubled land in the Horn of Africa.
And after a meeting with Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N. Y., Mohamed said that shortly after bin Laden’s death, the organization’s Somali affiliate — which controls large swaths of the country — threatened to kill both him and President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.
“It’s not something new,” said Mohamed, who did not describe the nature of the threat. “And probably now, since their leader is gone, their morale will come back if they kill someone like myself or the president.”
The threat to America from al-Qaida remains as well, Mohamed said.
“It’s a decentralized organization,” he said. “Of course, they subscribe to bin Laden’s crazy ideology but the movement is decentralized and able to continue his activities.”
Schumer lauded Mohamed’s efforts to fight terrorism, saying: “You have an open pipeline to me, and your Western New York connection means something to me, as well as trying to keep Somalia free of terrorism, which would matter to any New Yorker.”
Plucked unexpectedly from his state job by Somalia’s president last year, Mohamed said he is working hard to fight terrorism and bring his long-divided country back together.
“What I am doing is to protect Americans,” he said. “The fight should be in Mogadishu [the Somali capital], not Buffalo, not Manhattan.”
Mohamed told lawmakers that Somalia may need more time to reconcile its political divisions before scheduled elections in August.
A day earlier, he brought the same message to the U. N. Security Council, which passed a resolution expressing grave concern over the nation’s political divide.
Somalia’s transitional parliament voted in February to extend its term for three years, a move the executive branch rejected, saying the transitional government should be extended only one more year.
“I came to the UN to convince them we have to reform the parliament,” Mohamed said.
Mohamed was coy, though, about what his personal plans would be once elections are scheduled.
“I can only tell you what I am doing today,” he said.
Still, if he stays in Somalia, it will be with mixed feelings.
“Say hi to everybody in Buffalo,” he said. “I miss that place.”
Source: Buffalo News