Somalia, Al-Shabab, and the United States, with Julian Barnes and Emilia Columbo
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 27 October 2021
⏱️ 37 minutes
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Summary
In November 2020, a raid against terrorists in Somalia led to the death of an American working for the CIA Special Activities Center. This, after the Trump administration had eased combat rules and airstrikes in Somalia surged. Now the Biden administration seems to be reviewing its policy toward Somalia and the al-Shabab terrorists there.
David Priess talked about it with Julian Barnes, a national security reporter for the New York Times focusing on the intelligence agencies, and coauthor of a recent article in the Times that uses the story of the hunt for an elusive al-Shabab bomb maker to shine a light on the group's continuing strength and the challenges for U.S. policy. Joining them was former CIA senior analyst Emilia Columbo, now a senior associate to the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, as well as senior security risk analyst at VoxCroft Analytics.
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Transcript
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| 0:25.6 | no bull and the aftermath. |
| 0:33.9 | The Trump administration pulled out a lot of the military advisors. |
| 0:38.0 | You know, there were 700 now. |
| 0:39.6 | There's only 100 military advisors there. |
| 0:43.6 | And the Biden administration is trying to say is putting more military forces back in, |
| 0:50.3 | going to help. |
| 0:51.3 | Is it going to stiffen the spine of the African Union to stay longer? |
| 0:55.5 | Is it going to solidify the gains that have been made in Mogadishu or is this a situation |
| 1:02.9 | like Afghanistan where, you know, no matter what we do, we're not going to stop the rise |
| 1:10.4 | of Shabbab over time? |
| 1:13.3 | I'm David Pries and this is the LawFair podcast, October 27, 2021. |
| 1:21.0 | In November of 2020, a raid against terrorists in Somalia led to the death of an American |
| 1:26.6 | working for the CIA's Special Activity Center. |
| 1:30.6 | This, after the Trump administration had eased combat rules and airstrikes in Somalia |
| 1:36.0 | surged. |
| 1:37.0 | Now, the Biden administration seems to be reviewing its policy towards Somalia and the |
| 1:43.1 | al-Shabab terrorists there. |
| 1:45.9 | I talked about it with Julian Barnes, a national security reporter for the New York Times, |
... |
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