Thread by @karolcummins

🤔#SomaliaAndTeamTrump🤔

The curious tale of the long history of #TeamTrump & a GOP socialite operative in Somalia.

The players: Paul Manafort, Erik Prince, Roger Stone & Michelle Ballarin.

In 1989 Manafort sought to work for Siad Barre accused of presiding over “summary killings, arbitrary arrest, detention in squalid conditions, torture, rape”. In one of Africa’s many proxy conflicts during the cold war, but is a US ally against SU/RU.
theguardian.com/us-news/2016/m…

Somalia descended into anarchy, and a few years later, the intervention of US special forces led to the infamous “Black Hawk Down” incident. Barre died in exile in Nigeria in 1995.
theguardian.com/us-news/2016/m…

📌Somalia has untapped reserves of natural resources, including uranium, iron ore, tin, gypsum, bauxite, copper, salt and natural gas. Close to the oil-rich Gulf Arab states such as SA & Yemen, also may have substantial unexploited reserves of oil.
azomining.com/Article.aspx?A…

📌Economy: There has been substantial, albeit unmeasured, private investment in commercial activities; this has been largely financed by the Somali diaspora, and includes trade and marketing, *money transfer services*,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_o…

‼️Thread‼️

Roger Stone, Erik Prince, Paul Manafort & Republican Michelle Ballarin.

https://twitter.com/adancabdulle/status/1005189000955559936?s=21

2008: An American businesswoman with connections to U.S. intelligence and the military has been talking with the Somali pirates who have commandeered the Saudi oil tanker Sirius Star, trying to get the ship released.
abcnews.go.com/International/…

2011 ‘Prince of Mercenaries' who wreaked havoc in Iraq turns up in Somalia

Blackwater founder sets up new force to tackle piracy
independent.co.uk/news/world/afr…

5/14/11
Erik Prince trained Somali mercs: Secret Desert Force Set Up by Blackwater’s Founder.

nytimes.com/2011/05/15/wor…

2013 Ballarin boasted to reporters that she had a plan to bring peace and prosperity to the beleaguered country.

After two decades of strife, some Somalis grabbed onto her like a lifeline.

The pirates called her Amira, which means “princess” in Arabic.
washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/maga…

a Virginia-based nonprofit called the Oasis Foundation for Hope. Its ambitious aim is the resettlement of Somalia’s 1.1 million refugees, 385,000 of whom live in a sprawling, crowded encampment in Dadaab, a town in eastern Kenya that borders Somalia
washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/maga…

Heritage Foundation’s Analysis of Somalia
heritage.org/index/country/…

📌5/17 Roger Stone joined Capstone Financial Group to advocate for “commodity rights & security of the same in Somalia.” Per the federal lobbying disclosure database, Stone disclosed this just 2 weeks after the 45 deployed dozens of troops to the region
observer.com/2018/01/roger-…

6/22/17 - Frontier Services Group (FSG) , co-founded by Erik Prince who created the U.S. security firm Blackwater, and said it would provide logistics, aviation and security services for a regional development project in Somalia.
reuters.com/article/somali…

The new contract w/ Somalia stipulates that over an unknown # of years, FSG will assist in constructing a major seaport to deal with increased volume of import/export as well as expanding and modernizing an airport in the region. #Port
sofrep.com/84301/erik-pri…

6/23/17: Frontier Services Group (FSG), co-founded by Erik Prince who created the US security firm Blackwater, said on Thursday it would provide logistics, aviation and security services for a regional development project in Somalia.
theeastafrican.co.ke/news/Blackwate…

7/17/17 - Reports are emerging of ex-Blackwater CEO's increasing involvement in the UAE's military affairs, with few, if any, UAE citizens actually involved in its army exercises.
alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2…

The man behind FSG, R2 and Blackwater, Erik Prince, has an important ally in Trump’s cabinet – his own sister, the education secretary, Betsy Devos.
alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2…

Erik Prince is reportedly a “shadowy” military adviser to US President Donald Trump, due to a close relationship with Trump’s advisers, Steve Bannon and Peter Thiel.

In Somalia, the Erik Prince’s FSG is responsible for ‘security services’ for western development services near Mogadishu.
alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2…

PMHassan Khaire had a secret meeting with Kirill Dmitriev & former Navy SEAL Eric Prince, co-founder & CEO of FSG, which signed a lucrative infrastructure and logistics contract worth more than $10 billion with the South West State of Somalia in June 2017.
tusmonews.com/2018/02/28/bla…

Erik Prince, founder met Kirill Dmitriev, whose wife is close friends with Vladimir Putin's daughter.

New questions arise over a meeting between Erik Prince and Kirill Dmitriev financier with direct ties to Putin

ft.com/content/a5f069…

The number of U.S. military forces in Somalia has more than doubled this year to over 500 people as the Pentagon has quietly posted 100s of additional special operations personnel to advise local forces in pockets of Islamic militants around the country,
politico.com/story/2017/11/…

It is the largest American military contingent since the infamous 1993 "Black Hawk Down" battle, when 18 U.S. soldiers died.

This is an example of how the Pentagon’s operations in Africa have expanded with greater authority provided to field commanders.
politico.com/story/2017/11/…

The expansion includes deploying Green Berets and Navy SEALs to far-flung outposts to target the al-Shabab insurgency and a group of militants in the northern region of Puntland who last year pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.
politico.com/story/2017/11/…

📌1/4/18 Roger Stone’s New Gig: Lobbying for Drone Strikes.

Veteran GOP operative &self-described “ratf*cker” Stone is advocating for military operations, including drone strikes, in Somalia on behalf of his first lobbying client in 17 years.
thedailybeast.com/roger-stones-n…

The U.S. military is fighting a shadow war with Al Shabaab, an Al Qaeda-aligned Islamist group that still controls large swathes of Somalia. SOs say that the Special Forces raids & drone strikes targeting the group’s leadership have had significant impact.
newyorker.com/news/news-desk…

📌Trump is shielding even the broad contours of his new drone guidelines, his overall strategy, and some relevant data on operations from the American people.
#Drones
theatlantic.com/international/…

7/19/18:The Trump admin said Thursday that Somalis granted special immigration status in the US can keep the designation, making them one of the few groups permitted to stay in the US. under a program that has allowed them to remain here for years.
pbs.org/newshour/polit…

Please add any additional info you may have or please point me toward new directions or datapoints.

h/t @TundraEatsYou
@911CORLEBRA777 @mopeng @KiernanKathleen @ninaandtito @freedomAU21C @ThomasS4217 @LouiseBagshawe

DHS would like expand the agency’s power to surveil, research, and attack drones in U.S. airspace. There are a number of things that DHS “can’t do currently” because of outdated laws that have the potential to jeopardize America’s national security.
gizmodo.com/homeland-secur…

@threadreaderapp unroll please and thank you.