“Why is a US Ambassador feting a terrorist?” on the scandal of Larry André, Jr., U.S. Ambassador to Somalia, dining with a terrorist.
By Michael Rubin
In Somalia, on October 14, 2017, terrorists detonated a two-truck bomb near Mogadishu’s Hodan district, killing at least 587 people. It was a massive explosion. The Safari Hotel collapsed. Forensic investigators believe the truck carried two tons of explosives.
While Somalia is no stranger to violence, the 2017 attack remains the deadliest attack in its history. It might have been even worse: Somali police heroically intercepted the truck before it reached the airport zone home to most foreign embassies and many international businesses.
Al-Shabaab, a Somali terrorist group that pledged allegiance to the Al Qaeda affiliate, was behind the bombing. Mukhtar Robow Ali was the group’s co-founder and, for several years, was it’s spokesman and No. 2. His tenure coincides with the planning of al-Shabaab’s 2013 attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi. His terrorist involvement led the State Department in 2012 to issue a $5 million bounty for information leading to his arrest.
Robow laid down his weapons and left Al-Shabaab after finding himself on the losing end of a power struggle within the organization. While the Department lifted the reward in 2017, the U.S. Treasury Department continues to list him as a specially designated national. The previous Somali government placed him under house arrest, but Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, Somalia’s current president, appointed him to his cabinet as minister of Islamic Affairs.
Robow’s inclusion in the government might not be a bad thing. It shows Al-Shabaab terrorists that there is an off-ramp other than to end their days in a shootout or as a suicide bomber. Nor is Somalia the only government that makes space for terrorists who seek to come in from the cold.
Qais Khazali led the Iran-trained Special Groups in Iraq from June 2006 until British forces captured him nine months later. Today, he leads Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, a political movement represented in the current Iraqi cabinet that the State Department designated a terrorist group in January 2020. Khazali remains a specially designated global terrorist but also seeks to come in from the cold. For good reason, Washington may not believe him. U.S. Ambassador Alina Romanowski refuses to attend any event in which Khazali might be present. She certainly does not fete him, let alone dine with him.
https://twitter.com/US2SOMALIA/status/1641868608983687193
Larry André, Jr., shows no such qualms. While he boycotts Somaliland, the most democratic state in the Horn of Africa and one of the only two countries in Africa to choose Taiwan over China, in recent days he has not only met Robow but also hosted him at an Iftar dinner.
André shows poor judgment and, while retiring, should face immediate recall and demotion just as a U.S. general guilty of misconduct and poor judgment would. As J. Peter Pham, a former State Department special envoy for Africa and among Washington’s top intellectual presences on Africa, tweeted sarcastically, “I am sure that the families of #USA victims of Al-Shabaab terrorism take great comfort in knowing that their tax dollars paid for a meal for the group’s co-founder.”
https://twitter.com/DrJPPham/status/1642169510630154243
Not only American victims should feel that way. Millions of Somalis who have lost loved ones in the country’s violence may ask why a representative of the United States would so normalize a man responsible for so much bloodshed. As Pham asks of the diplomats involved, “Have they no shame?”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken should explain André’s action before Congress. Embassy officials involved in planning the event who did not use the dissent channel to object should face reassignment due to lost confidence.
The State Department’s Somalia policy is off-the-rails. Under Blinken’s supervision, the embassy promotes China over Taiwan, kleptocracy over democracy, selection over an election, and dysfunction over development. In addition, André has prioritized his own personal whims over U.S. laws such as the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act. To host a man responsible in part for Somalia’s worst bombing, however, takes the cake.
About Michael Rubin
Senior Fellow
Research Areas
Arab politics, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Horn of Africa
Bio & Experience
Michael Rubin is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he specializes in Iran, Turkey, and the broader Middle East.
A former Pentagon official, Dr. Rubin has lived in post-revolution Iran, Yemen, and both pre-and postwar Iraq. He also spent time with the Taliban before 9/11. For more than a decade, he taught classes at sea about the Horn of Africa and Middle East conflicts, culture, and terrorism, to deployed US Navy and Marine units.
Dr. Rubin is the author, coauthor, and coeditor of several books exploring diplomacy, Iranian history, Arab culture, Kurdish studies, and Shi’ite politics, including “Seven Pillars: What Really Causes Instability in the Middle East?” (AEI Press, 2019); “Kurdistan Rising” (AEI Press, 2016); “Dancing with the Devil: The Perils of Engaging Rogue Regimes” (Encounter Books, 2014); and “Eternal Iran: Continuity and Chaos” (Palgrave, 2005).
Dr. Rubin has a Ph.D. and an MA in history from Yale University, where he also obtained a BS in biology.
Experience
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- Foreign Military Studies Office: Contract Analyst, 2012–present
- Naval Postgraduate School: Senior Lecturer, 2007–21
- Middle East Quarterly: Editor, 2004–09
- Coalition Provisional Authority (Baghdad): Political Adviser, 2003–04
- Office of the Secretary of Defense: Staff Adviser, Iran and Iraq, 2002–04
- Council on Foreign Relations: International Affairs Fellow, 2002–03
- Hebrew University (Jerusalem): Fellow, The Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations, 2001–02
- Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs: Fellow, 2000–01
- Universities of Sulaymani, Salahuddin, and Duhok (Iraqi Kurdistan): Visiting Lecturer, 2000–01
- Yale University: Lecturer, Department of History, 1999–2000
- Iranian Studies: Assistant Editor, 1994–97
Education
Ph.D. and MA in history; BS in biology, Yale University
Contact
Send Email: mrubin@aei.org
Twitter: @mrubin1971
Media Request
Brady Africk
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Send Email: Brady.Africk@AEI.org
