Doorway to Hell : Disaster in Somalia

The mission was to feed the hungry, cure the sick, and bring peace to a country in anarchy. No formal government or organized infrastructure existed in this fourth world country governed by war lords and their armed bands of "gunmen." Operations "Restore Hope" and "Continue Hope" were planned and implemented to bring order to chaos. Unfortunately, what should have been a victory for the United Nations deteriorated into a humiliating defeat of massive proportions.

Why did an American administration--and Congress--allow under-armed U.S. forces to be committed to an open-ended mission of "nation building" under the direction of the U.N. which was an entirely different mission than that of saving starving people?

• Why did the administration fail to recognize the political and military whirlpool into which it was being sucked?
  
  

• What was the real strategic, tactical, and economic importance of Somalia to the western powers?
  
  

• Were there hidden reasons for international intervention in Somalia that nobody wished to admit or even discuss in public?
  
  

• What secrets lay beneath the hot desert sands of Somalia, known only by a privileged few?

Answer these questions and more by entering The Doorway to Hell---

Excerpt:

Page 71:
Being unable to separate the good from the bad made it even more confusing. 1LT Roger Harvey, Scout Platoon Leader in Sikes' battalion reported that his men, while on patrol, received considerable help from locals who led them to arms caches and depositories of looted rice. However, when the arms caches were in private homes, Harvey was prohibited from entering the homes to retrieve the arms or looted rice due to the Rules of Engagement. This did little to enhance the stature of U.S. troops in the eyes of Somalis who wanted to cooperate. If Somalia itself was hard to understand, the polyglot of UN forces made it even worse.

However other UN contingents did not have their hands tied as tightly as the American troops. The London Telegraph reported that a Belgian unit caught a young Somali thief and then roasted him over an open fire as an example to others. The resulting court martial gave the two paratroopers who committed the act a month in jail and a fine of 200 pounds.

In another instance, a Belgian soldier forced a young Somali to drink salt water, eat port (which will send a Moslem to Hell) and then eat his own vomit. Another Belgian NCO was accused of murdering a Somali whom he was photographed urinating upon, and another child who was caught stealing food from the paratroopers, died after being locked up in a metal storage locker for more than two days.

The Belgians were not the only troops caught abusing civilians. The Canadian Parachute Regiment was eventually disbanded after the public was made aware of a videotape taken by one of the paratroopers showing paratroopers torturing a juvenile Somali to death for stealing. This issue went all the way to the Canadian parliament who voted to disband the entire regiment for the actions of a few troopers. This would be akin to disbanding the Americal Division for the actions of one company at the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War.

In Milan, gruesome photos were published in a magazine of Italian paratroopers torturing a Somali boy and raping a Somali girl. In one instance, a young Somali girl was tied to the front of an armored personnel carrier and raped wile officers looked on.

End Excerpt.