The U.S.-supported Ethiopian dictatorship of Meles Zenawi has launched a massive military strike on neighboring Somalia.

Dec. 26, 2006 -- The U.S.-supported Ethiopian dictatorship of Meles Zenawi has launched a massive military strike on neighboring Somalia. The attack represents yet another front in the neo-con contrivance of a global "clash of civilizations" between Judeo-Christians and Muslims. Ethiopia is largely Coptic Christian while Somalia is almost entirely Muslim.

The Ethiopians and the Bush administration have cited "Al Qaeda" control of the Somali government led by the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC). The UIC's supporters claim the movement has brought stability to warlord-controlled Somalia through the implementation of the sharia Islamic law.

Last month, WMR reported on the presence of aircraft registered to Russian-Israeli Mafia arms smuggler Viktor Bout at Mogadishu Airport. The aircraft were supplying arms and ammunition to UIC forces. Bout also supplied both the Taliban and Northern Alliance in the years prior to 9/11. He has also flown logistics missions for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The following is what WMR reported on Bout's activities in Somalia:

November 17/18/19, 2006 -- A Ghanaian Boeing 707, suspected of being involved with Russian-Israeli mafiosi facilitator Viktor Bout's worldwide arms trafficking and smuggling network of charter flights, was recently spotted off-loading 40 tons of ammunition at Mogadishu Airport in Somalia. The ammunition was for the Islamic radical forces of the Union of Islamic Courts, a fundamentalist group that has captured control of much of Somalia and threatens the independence of Somaliland and the territorial integrity of surrounding countries.

The Boeing-707, registered in Ghana with registry number 9G-GAL, marked with “SACHA” on the fuselage, used the call sign 9QCTA. The plane landed in Mogadishu at 0700 GMT on November 13, 2006. The plane reportedly made previous stops with arms and ammunition at Mogadishu. Bout often re-registers and re-paints his aircraft as a way of covering his activities. The involvement of the Bout/Russian-Israeli mafia in Somalia is reminiscent of its logistics support for the Afghan Taliban and Al Qaeda prior to the 911 attacks. Bout was also named by the UN as a prime arms embargo buster in the brutal civil wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia. The same Bout network is contracted to provide logistics support for U.S. occupation forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Various intelligence services have reported that "Al Qaeda" fighters have entered Somali areas controlled by the Union of Islamic Courts. Since her days as National Security Adviser, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has a policy of "look but don't touch" when it comes to Bout's activities.

Bush administration and neo-cons fueled both sides in Horn of Africa clash.

The arming by the U.S. of both the Ethiopians and Somalis in preparation for war is nothing new. In fact, WMR and this editor has reported extensively on the past and current covert intelligence activities of the U.S. Defense Attache in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, U.S. Army Colonel Richard Orth. Described as the "Oliver North of Africa" by a high-ranking French military intelligence officer who has served in Africa, Orth has coddled a number of U.S. dictators in Africa. He was present in Rwanda the day after U.S.-supplied surface-to-air missiles struck the Rwandan presidential aircraft on April 6, 1994, assassinating the Hutu presidents of Rwanda and Burundi and triggering Rwandan and Zairian/Congolese civil wars that took the lives of over 5 million Africans. Orth, as Defense Attache in Kigali, Rwanda, lorded over the transformation of that country from a French-speaking nation to a U.S. client state with English-speaking refugees from Uganda put in charge. Orth then proceeded to take over as U.S. Defense Attache in Uganda where he cemented the U.S. military presence in that nation. He then moved on to Addis Ababa where, as Defense Attache, he coddled the Meles dictatorship and helped prepare Ethiopia's incursion into Somalia, bolstered the U.S. military positions in Djibouti and Somaliland, tilted U.S. policy to favor Ethiopia in its border war with Eritrea, coordinated Horn of Africa intelligence activities with his Israeli counterpart in Addis Ababa, and helped plan past Ugandan military forays into the Democratic Republic of the Congo, southern Sudan, and the Central African Republic.

WMR has also uncovered a possible link between the Italian right-wing/neo-con network that was effective in involving the United States in the Iraq war and groups backing Ethiopia's invasion of Somalia. Southern Somalia was once an Italian colony and there are strong links between Italy and Somalia, as well as neighboring Eritrea.

"Malauna Shaikh Abdul Hadi" Massimo Palazzi, the so-called Secretary General of the Cultural Institute of the Islamic Community in Italy, appears to be yet another Mario Scaramella-like individual with links to neo-con principals and Bush administration officials. Palazzi is linked to Somali exiles backed by the United States. Palazzi has past links to the ultra-Zionist Kahane Movement and Italian neo-Fascists loyal to Benito Mussolini's policies. Mainstream Italian Muslims adamantly deny any connections to Palazzi. Like Scaramella, Palazzi claims to be a university professor but has no credentials to support the claim. Also, like Scaramella, Palazzi is linked to Latin American right-wing groups, some of which have been linked to narcotics and weapons smuggling. More alarming, like Scaramella, Palazzi has been granted a visa to visit the United States unhindered by U.S. authorities and he has links to officials of the Bush administration.

However, more interesting is the fact that Palazzi's followers include a number of former army generals in the dictatorship of deposed Somali dictator Mohammed Siad Barre. These officers, as well as Palazzi, allegedly received U.S. military support in the months following 9/11 to overthrow the Somali government in Mogadishu and set up a pro-U.S. regime. In fact, Palazzi's supposed "conversion" to Islam appears to be a clever move to curry favor with the Somali exiles and provide cover for his intelligence activities.

Some of the Italian-based, U.S.-supported Somali exiles are clearly destined for leadership roles if the Ethiopia's proxy war against Somalis's UIC is successful. These include former officers in Siad Barre's army, chiefs of his secret police and top torturers and heroin and qat smugglers, CIA-trained Somali National Police officers, and cabinet ministers. Additionally, some of the Somalis have strong links to the Vatican, particularly the right-wing Catholic sect Opus Dei.