I am surpised that the honorable Congressman is perturbed that he is getting a runaround on one particular issue. Step back and realize that he is getting a runaround on most issues, different runsaround from different entities. The UN has never briefed him honestly about their long time facade in Somalia. Payne's own advisors are biased, in my opinion, and represent a view that no one outside of "the international community" in Nairobi would think represents realities on the ground in Somalia. That Puntlanders and Somalilanders have grave concerns about Payne's TFG, a completely fabricated pseudo-government, is obvious to anyone who knows the Somali character. Throw in the Rahanweyn, too, and you have a huge majority of the Somali population that has NO respect for the West and its TFG. The TFG was a bad gamble at the end of Bush's regime, railroaded in Djibouti away from the light of inspection, and one that all Somalis saw as flawed to the point of absurdity. They stuffed the "Parliament" with people, some illiterat, to vote for Sheikh Sharif as the new leader. Now we are telling the regional leaders how to handle their business, and regional Somali leaders know how to evade and avoid this kind of coercion. They have seen false threats from the US/UN/IGAD conglomeration since 1991. You are crying "wolf," and no one believes you anymore.

I recommend that the US and UN start over with an idea that would decentralized the government functions, and not emphasize running the territories by means of a Central Government in Mogadishu. I recommended the same approach in 1993 to UN and US policy makers in the wake of the problems then. They ignored the advice. Now look where their strategy has led them.