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What does the city of Mogadishu in Somalia have in common with the cities of Casablanca of the 1940s and Havana of the 1950s? They all have been spy cities for different geopolitical reasons. For spymasters, cities with feeble authorities (like the Casablanca of the 1940s), or with impending revolutions (like the Havana of the 1950s) are prime attractions. By the same token, Mogadishu, cursed with numerous local warlords, is even more attractive to anyone in the spy business.
During World War II, Casablanca, Morocco, claimed fame as the epicenter for global espionage and attracted agents from all over of the world. Blessed with seductive and virgin beaches on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, and featuring unique and eclectic cousins, with its very ethnic dish of roasted lamb shoulder on cuscus, plus varieties of wines that particularly appeal to westerners, many spies flocked into Casablanca in the1940s to conduct daily (as well as nightly) secretive business in a “civil” way. The best depiction of the 1940's spy business is Humphrey Bogart's classical movie, “Casablanca.” The movie, based on a play written by Murray Burnett and Jean Alison, portrays Casablanca in 1943 as a city coping with a multitude of European refugees. But the actual spy story of the city at the time revolves around a bitter nightclub owner who helps his former lover and her resistance hero husband who escaped from the Nazis. To get to that objective, agents who chase with gusto dossiers that constantly change hands overwhelm Casablanca's treacherous alleys; and the city is plagued with inter-European intrigues and mysterious killings. Absent from the portrayal of Casablanca is any Arab or Moroccan authorities to sway matters in any meaningful direction. Rather, local Emirs and Sultans remained passive spectators of events around them, occasionally handing information to one spy or another in exchange for cash, wine and women. Casablanca was unstable until 1955, when it finally got back its normalcy.
And then came along Havana city, in the communist Island of Cuba. Before Fidel Castro overthrew the previous government, Cuba was a backwater and a client state of the U.S. It was in search for a change to such a condition that propelled the entire region into peasant revolts. On its part, Cuba was pregnant with its then impending revolution. Fidel Castro and Che Guevara took a temporary residence in the deep and dark tropical forests of the Caribbean Islands. More importantly, spies chose Havana city to monitor the movements of revolutionaries in the hills of Bolivia, or the Cuban insurgents tugged in the tropical forest. As depicted in Greene Graham's “Our Man in Havana,” the city's spy story is narrated through a middle aged Englishman and a shopkeeper in Havana, who is recruited for secret service without quite knowing what it is all about. The inter-rivalry between the European powers of the time is no secret to any one, as one of the characters in the novel puts it: “we hear nowadays about the cold war, but any trader will tell you that the war between the manufacturers of the same goods can be quite a hot war…. One Russian – or German – and British.” Havana in 1958 was a city of death, deceit and destruction. Poisoning one's hotel mate or leading an unsuspecting fellow sightseer into a death trap was not out of the order. Using the British embassy or the Russian consulate as centers for spying on one's enemy or even plotting the demise of a nemesis was part of Havana's normal daily business. Mr. Greene tells us that everyone drunk in Havana most of the day. The purpose of such a behavior, common in the world of espionage, was to numb the inhibition of the opposing side (most often natives got numbed with alcohol) and then extract information. The Russians on their part spied on western spies on behalf of the native revolutionaries with the long-term objective of wining them over to their camp. Like Casablanca, Havana had its share of mysterious murders on all sides, unsolved riddles over dossiers or confidential files; and many spies had wasted their lives through Cuba's indegenous “sugar cane”-based rum. It is part of the spy life style to freely socialize over drinking, remain “civil” on the outside while at the same time plotting a noose to trap the other side. Havana got back its peace only after the Cuban revolution succeeded and rooted out spying and all its attendants.
Mogadishu city had a brief flirtation with spy culture in the1960s. Spying agents from Italy, England, the U.S., Russia as well as China crowded the city's limited hotel accommodations in the 1960s. One could easily see them socializing at places like Croce Del Sud, Lido nightclub, Savoy, Shabelle hotel, etc. But the most conspicuous yet clandestine center for western spies outside their respective embassies was Casa Di Italia, which served as the private club for the larger Italian community, but in actuality served all spies as a resort center. It was here where most western spies shifted and shared dossiers and confidential files about Somalia and other relevant matters. A Somali academic recently told me that it was not uncommon in Mogadishu in the 1960s to have four or five Somali individuals sitting together yet each representing a different foreign spy agency. In his book “Naked Needle,” Nuuradin Farah seems to tell the story of what could be a local agent and his spymaster. This is so especially when Nuradin writes about a heightened intimacy of sex- and alcohol-based relationship between a Somali middle class man and an expatriate woman. Moreover, in an article published in the Horn of Africa Journal, G. Miller, a medical anthropologist, detailed the involvement of the Mafia in the smuggling of Somalia's plants and animal products, particularly the horn of the rhinoceros. Many of Somalia's plant and animal products were sold to European pharmaceutical companies and were processed into high valued medicine. Dr. Miller makes the argument that Somalia's products had earned good return in the international market. The Chinese view grounded rhinoceros horn as an effective medical item against male impotency; the Arab Yemenis use it for ornamenting and glazing the stub of higher-end traditional daggers. Wherever the Mafia is active, as it were in Mogadishu in the 1960s, the Italian intelligence community, at minimum, and the inter-pol must be at work. Hence, all these entities were active in Mogadishu in the 1960s and beyond.
In 2005, though, Mogadishu is what Casablanca and Havana were in their times - the spy epicenter of this era. Every major power and regional government that counts has its spies dug in. Spies for the U.S., Britain, Italy, and France are all present one way or another (most probably through proxy agents) to get that one lead about the alleged al-Qaeda cells. Even countries like Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya and Eritrea that once respected Mogadishu (as the seat for an ambitious nation in search of uniting its people) now defy her and planted their spies deep inside the many fiefdom-controlled derelict neighborhoods, so that they can learn more about who resides where and who can do what? This time around, the business of spying on Somalia is not what one sees in Humphrey Bogart's “Casablanca,” or reads in Greene Graham's “Our Man in Havana-” idyllic evenings of drinking sprees in upscale nightclubs or hot and humid afternoons where everyone drinks rum and buffs Cuban cigar, respectively and wait on finding that one lead. It is a life that is often looked with endearment if one survives it. In Mogadishu, spy business is a dangerously dreadful business manned and manipulated by the likes of “Jeeble” as Jeeble in “Links” of Nuradin Farah – cruel, cunning and clueless vigilante who could cheaply be hired by anyone, including the alleged Al-Qaeda sleeper cells in Mogadishu. Mogadishu's resilient warlords are major players in the alleged spy business. The warlords hire “Jeeble”-like mercenaries and pass the bill to their spymasters. Warlords in Mogadishu kill for anyone with a buck. Al Qaeda too hires them and eliminates its critics and those on its death list (Yahya AbdulKadir has allegedly been killed in one of such a circumstance.) Ethiopia also is accused of killing earlier several of its critics through its proxy spies. The latest victim of the killing spree in Mogadishu is Maxamed Cimaan Coon who grew up in the Somali town of Dir Dhabe, located in the Somali Regional State of Ethiopia. Maxamed Cusman Coon was a former member of the Somali Criminal Investigation Department-CID.
The International Crisis Group (ICG) has reported that “Aden Hashi Ayro, an al-Qaida-linked Somali trained in Afghanistan, as the leader of a small, but ruthless terrorist network that appears to be growing in Mogadishu. ICG report goes to add: “The network has allegedly carried out a number of assassinations in Somalia.” Why ICG ignored to mention Qanyare, Yalaxow and other Islamic fundamentalists baffles many observers. In addition to foreign governments' and Al-Qaeda interests, there is a new twist to the spy business in Mogadishu. Drug traffickers, European toxic waste materials and urban trash management companies have also their role to play. The Italian Mafia, a group closely associate with trash management in Europe, for example, have been alleged to have had similar proxy murders and had successfully eliminated several investigative journalists who tried to uncover the true stories surrounding the dumping of toxic waste materials in the coast line of Somalia (at least two European journalists, including BBC's Kate, are allegedly killed by Italian Mafia sponsored plots.) In addition to silencing its critics, the Mafia regularly allegedly engages warlords to help it dump the urban refuse of western cities like Rome, London and Berlin, whose landfills are teetering at the seams. In the process of foreign interests chasing leads about al-Qaeda or waste managing companies searching for secured dumpsites in Somalia, innocent Somali civilians and western journalists are killed and/or kidnapped. A nation's hope to re-group has also been frustrated. Mogadishu today is a place where a western rookie spy practices and perfects his/her trade of chasing and reporting on Al-Qeada cells. It is also a rare opportunity for terrorists to freely move around and have warlords protect them for a cheap price. Even neighboring countries have planted their spies in the dark belly of Mogadishu so as to milk gullible western rich nations by claiming to have had their share of spying on terrorists. Mogadishu is indeed the spy epicenter of the new world order centered on terrorism. Who failed Mogadishu? Enough data has been lately emerging that forces like Al Qeada and those who spy plus drug traffickers and European toxic management companies all would like to perpetuate the present status quo of Mogadishu. Hence they are culprits in Mogadishu's permanent lawlessness. But Somalis themselves should shoulder the main responsibility of the City's terrible saga, lest they have constantly missed numerous opportunities to resolve their disputes. Before Mogadishu regains normalcy and reclaims its glorious past, alleged terrorist cells, spymasters, along with drug traffickers and Mafia plotters, must all be eliminated. Somalis can't do it alone. It requires a concerted and honest effort by all those involved. Faisal A. Roble E-Mail:fabroble@aol.com
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