May 28, 2003 - Contra Costa Times: RPCVs rally to aid former Somali ally

Peace Corps Online: Peace Corps News: Headlines: Peace Corps Headlines - 2003: May 2003 Peace Corps Headlines: May 28, 2003 - Contra Costa Times: RPCVs rally to aid former Somali ally

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RPCVs rally to aid former Somali ally





Rep. Petri (right) joined with RPCV Congressmen Rep. Mike Honda, Rep. Jim Walsh, and Rep. Chris Shays for a Peace Corps recruitment meeting with young congressional staffers. Rep. Petri served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Somalia.

Read and comment on this story from the Contra Costa Times on efforts that RPCVs Martin Ganzglass, Sal Tedesco and RPCV Congressman Tom Petri are making to prevent deportation and possible imprisonment or death in Somalia of a longtime U.S. ally, Mohamed Abshir Musse. Abshir, former head of the Somali National Police, helped the Peace Corps establish its program in his country four decades ago and was a strong American ally at a time when the Soviet Union was also exerting influence in the country. The old general was openly pro-Western and deeply committed to constitutional democracy. He spent 12 years in prison -- nine in solitary confinement without any human contact besides his guards -- for resisting the Soviet-backed dictatorship that took over the government in 1969.

Tedesco remembers a day in 1964 when the general politely suggested Peace Corps volunteers in the northern part of the country deserved a vacation -- despite all just having returned from one. At the time, Somalia and Ethiopia were skirmishing over a shared border. Because many local Somalis knew the U.S. was supporting the Ethiopian government, they began to take their frustrations out on Peace Corps volunteers.

Bob Blackburn of San Leandro, was the country director in Somalia for the Peace Corps after the Tedescos were there. "We had an ally there who understood us and appreciated what the Peace Corps was trying to do," said Blackburn, a former Oakland school administrator. "It's so ironic that he's having trouble staying in this country because we've never had a better friend in East Africa than this man."

How can RPCVs help? Write or call your Congressperson and ask him to do two things; contact Congressman Petri and advise him they will support H.R. 520; contact Congressman John Hostettler, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Immigration and urge him to quickly and favorably report out H.R. 520 for a vote by the full House. Read the story at:


Residents rally to aid former ally*

* This link was active on the date it was posted. PCOL is not responsible for broken links which may have changed.



Residents rally to aid former ally

By Kiley Russell

CONTRA COSTA TIMES

CASTRO VALLEY - A national effort to help a longtime U.S. ally avoid deportation and possible imprisonment or death in Somalia has touched down in the Bay Area.

A pair of prominent East Bay residents are among a phalanx of former Peace Corps volunteers and American diplomats around the country lobbying to help Mohamed Abshir Musse stay in the United States.

"We are a loose, spontaneous group whose common interest and purpose stems from the fact that we all saw service in Somalia at different periods and all had cause to appreciate Mohamed Abshir," said Sal Tedesco.

Tedesco now lives in Castro Valley with his wife, Sylvia, where he is active in local politics. In the early 1960s, however, the couple heeded President Kennedy's call to service by joining the Peace Corps, uprooting their family and moving to East Africa, where Tedesco headed up the Somalia program for two years.

"The whole government was pretty bad. ... That's why Abshir was so important to us; he represented real structure in the country," Tedesco said.

Abshir, former head of the Somali National Police, helped the Peace Corps establish its program in his country four decades ago and was a strong American ally at a time when the Soviet Union was also exerting influence in the country.

The old general was openly pro-Western and deeply committed to constitutional democracy. He spent 12 years in prison -- nine in solitary confinement without any human contact besides his guards -- for resisting the Soviet-backed dictatorship that took over the government in 1969.

He also helped the American military and saved many American lives during the otherwise disastrous "Operation Restore Hope" in 1992.

Now, when the U.S. is trying to cultivate allies in the Muslim world for its campaign against terrorism, many Abshir supporters say allowing him to stay in this country would send a positive message overseas.

"If you break your trust and promise to Abshir, poor Hamid Karzai (leader of Afghanistan's interim government) may be next and whoever's in Iraq may be next," said Martin Ganzglass, a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer and former Peace Corps volunteer.

Ganzglass is helping coordinate the effort to keep Abshir from being deported.

"There is a principle involved in standing by the people who have helped you," Ganzglass said.

Abshir, 76, however, is from a predominantly Muslim country suspected of harboring terrorists and so finds himself in a bureaucratic limbo created by immigration policy established after the Sept. 11 attacks.

He was required to register with immigration officials along with thousands of other adult males visitors from 25 countries, denied a visa extension and awaits an immigration hearing June 3.

Abshir came to this country in 2000 via Saudi Arabia to seek medical treatment for his adult son's multiple sclerosis. He now lives in Eden Prairie, Wis., with his wife, daughter and her husband.

"My two worries are the health of my son and my family's future," Abshir said in a telephone interview from Eden Prairie.

A special bill sponsored by Rep. Thomas Petri, R-Wis., to enable him and his family to remain is stuck in committee, so Tedesco and his former colleagues are trying to galvanize support for the bill.

Several former ambassadors, two Peace Corps directors and a score of former Peace Corps volunteers have taken a real interest.

One of them, Bob Blackburn of San Leandro, was the country director in Somalia for the Peace Corps after the Tedescos were there.

"We had an ally there who understood us and appreciated what the Peace Corps was trying to do," said Blackburn, a former Oakland school administrator. "It's so ironic that he's having trouble staying in this country because we've never had a better friend in East Africa than this man."

Many of Abshir's champions in this country can recount stories of his legendary succor and credit him with saving American lives, first as head of Somalia's national police force in the 1960s and then again in 1992 and 1993 when President George H.W. Bush sent the U.S. military to protect humanitarian operations in the chaotic country.

Tedesco remembers a day in 1964 when the general politely suggested Peace Corps volunteers in the northern part of the country deserved a vacation -- despite all just having returned from one.

At the time, Somalia and Ethiopia were skirmishing over a shared border. Because many local Somalis knew the U.S. was supporting the Ethiopian government, they began to take their frustrations out on Peace Corps volunteers.

Tedesco's people didn't endure anything more than sharp words and thrown rocks, but the American ambassador thought it might be a good time for the Peace Corps to take an extended break from the country.

"We needed the Peace Corps much more than the Peace Corps needed us and I wanted to make sure every volunteer in Somalia was safe," Abshir said.

The man who ran President Bush's humanitarian mission in the country in the early 1990s, former U.S. Ambassador Robert Oakley, also sings Abshir's praises.

Abshir provided "vital help" for an American effort to create an all-Somali police force outside local warlords' influence, according to Oakley.

"Without the Somali police, U.S. soldiers would have been in a situation which would have caused them to take casualties," Oakley said in a letter to Petri supporting the congressman's bill.

The legislation is stuck because no so-called private bills are moving right now and in any event, it's unusual these days for Congress to get involved in immigration issues. If the bill has a chance of getting out of subcommittee, it will be after Abshir has exhausted all his immigration appeals, said Petri, who also served with the Peace Corps in Somalia and worked with Abshir.

Still, the congressman believes his friend will eventually find a permanent home in the U.S.

"He is a mythical figure in Somalia. ... If you have all the ambassadors to the country saying he's a good guy and he's 76 years old, I mean, have a heart," Petri said.

Reach Kiley Russell at 925-847-2119 or krussell@cctimes.com.

March 15, 2003 - Somalia RPCVs Martin R. Ganzglass and Thomas E. Petri fight to save Somali Leader from Deportation





Rep. Petri (right) joined with RPCV Congressmen Rep. Mike Honda, Rep. Jim Walsh, and Rep. Chris Shays for a Peace Corps recruitment meeting with young congressional staffers. Rep. Petri served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Somalia.

Read and comment on this story from the Washington Post on Somali leader Abshir Musse who was kept in solitary confinement for nine years by a Soviet-backed dictator and later helped save American lives during the vicious fighting in Somalia in the early 1990s. Now living in the Uniteds States he is facing deportation under the controversial special registration effort begun late last year by the Justice Department. The program requires adult male visitors from those countries, most of them Muslim, to register at government offices, where they are interviewed, fingerprinted and photographed.

Diplomats and Peace Corps volunteers who endured harrowing times in Somalia with Abshir are demanding intervention by the State Department, which so far has taken no action. A bill has been introduced in Congress by RPCV Congressman Tom Petri who served in Somalia and knew Abshir there to make Abshir, who has been living in the United States while he seeks medical attention for his son, a permanent resident. But it appears to be languishing.

Mohamed's hearing before an INS Judge on March 18 resulted in a postponement until June 3, so there is time to act. RPCVs who want to help should write or fax their individual Congressman or Congresswoman and ask them to support Congressman Petri's bill, H.R. 520, to grant Mohamed Abshir and his family permanent residence status in the U.S. You should urge your Congressperson to do two things; contact Congressman Petri and advise him they will support H.R. 520; contact Congressman John Hostettler, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Immigration and urge him to quickly and favorably report out H.R. 520 for a vote by the full House. Please send copies of your letters to Congressman Tom Petri, at 2262 Rayburn Office Building, Wash. D.C. 20515 and Congressman John Hostettler at 1507 Longworth Office Building, Wash. D.C. 20515. Read the story at:


Former Somali General Told to Leave U.S.*

* This link was active on the date it was posted. PCOL is not responsible for broken links which may have changed.



Former Somali General Told to Leave U.S.

Diplomats Protest Possible Deporting Of American

By George Lardner Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 17, 2003; Page A15

To the many U.S. diplomats who have worked with him, 76-year-old Gen. Mohamed Abshir Musse is a courageous Muslim ally who was kept in solitary confinement for nine years by a Soviet-backed dictator and later helped save American lives during the vicious fighting in Somalia in the early 1990s.

But to the Bush administration, he is one of thousands of foreign visitors to the United States who hail from 25 countries suspected of being havens for terrorism, a man who faces deportation because officials refused to extend his visa.

The two sides are now facing off in one of the more poignant cases to emerge from the controversial special registration effort begun late last year by the Justice Department. The program requires adult male visitors from those countries, most of them Muslim, to register at government offices, where they are interviewed, fingerprinted and photographed. Immigration violators face detention and deportation.

The diplomats and some Peace Corps workers who endured harrowing times in Somalia with Abshir are demanding intervention by the State Department, which so far has taken no action. A bill has been introduced in Congress to make Abshir, who has been living in the United States while he seeks medical attention for his son, a permanent resident. But it appears to be languishing.

"People should go to bat for their friends," said Washington lawyer Martin R. Ganzglass, who worked for Abshir as a Peace Corps volunteer in the 1960s and remains a close friend. "The United States has made friends around the world for decades. It's not good policy to write them off."

Abshir was the first commander of the Somali National Police, a pro-American organization that was seen as a counterforce to the Soviet-trained Somali army in the 1960s, when Somalia became a democratic republic. A leader in the northeast part of the country, he headed armed forces against Islamic fundamentalists in factional fighting there more than a decade ago and worked with U.S. officials in setting up nonpolitical police forces in his region and in Mogadishu in 1992 and 1993.

According to one of those officials, he told the Americans there to watch their backs when they came to his area of the country. And in Mogadishu, officials add, the police force he helped to establish relieved Americans of patrolling "the dark alleys" where they might have been killed.

Abshir "has correctly been credited with helping to avoid the loss of American service members' lives," six former U.S. ambassadors and special envoys wrote to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell last December. "We know [him] as a good friend of our country and a decided enemy of extremism."

Abshir came to the United States two years ago to seek help for his son, now 29, who has multiple sclerosis. Abshir, who lives in Eden Prairie, Minn., said his visa was extended several times, but it expired Sept. 15 despite his application for renewal. On Dec. 30, he appeared at a government office to register with the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System.

Late last month, he was informed that his Sept. 9, 2002, application for a visa extension had been denied because he failed to buy an airline ticket out of the country as the Immigration and Naturalization Service had demanded. "There is no appeal to this decision," the INS told him. Early this month, he received a follow-up notice directing him to report March 18 for removal proceedings before an immigration judge in Minneapolis, making him one of 4,825 men nationwide to face such action.

A spokesman for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, one of the agencies created when the Immigration and Naturalization Service was broken up and moved into the Department of Homeland Security on March 1, said, "We are aware of the [Abshir] case and we are looking into it." The spokesman, Bill Strassberger, said an immigration judge at Tuesday's hearing "could find grounds" for Abshir to stay in the United States.

Although a decision to deny a visa extension cannot be appealed, Strassberger added, the results of a removal hearing can be.

A modest man whose optimism appears to be unbounded, Abshir said he does not believe he will be deported. He has confidence, he said, in his "American friends."

Those friends, however, are not so enthusiastic. They have backed a private bill introduced by Rep. Thomas E. Petri (R-Wis.), who met Abshir in 1966, when Petri was a Peace Corps volunteer, but the bill, which would give permanent resident status to Abshir, his wife, his son and a daughter, appears to be languishing in a House subcommittee. The State Department has refused to endorse it on the grounds that it does not take positions on private legislation.

Ganzglass faulted what he considers the State Department's rigid legal bureaucracy for the stance.

"He helped save American lives, but he's just one more [Muslim], right?" said Robert B. Oakley, the U.S. ambassador to Somalia from 1982 to 1984 and a special envoy there from 1992 to 1994, after President George H.W. Bush sent U.S. troops to protect United Nations relief supplies in the war-torn country.

Abshir is hoping for a green card so he can seek insurance to help pay for his son Abdullahi's medical care.

Once head of a nationwide police force known for its professionalism and incorruptibility, Abshir was stripped of extensive property holdings and put under house arrest for 31/2 years when he refused to support dictator Mohamed Siad Barre's seizure of power in 1969. In interviews, he said Barre tried to buy him off with money or prestigious appointments, "anything I wanted, but I refused to work for him."

Released briefly in 1972, he said he was arrested again after attending a soccer game in Mogadishu Stadium, where he received a huge ovation. This time, he was sent to a remote, maximum-security prison and held in an underground cell for nine years.

Peter S. Bridges, who was the U.S. ambassador to Somalia from 1984 to 1986, said he was amazed at Abshir's resilience and determination to restore democracy in his country. "He may be the best Somali living," Bridges said last week. "He wasn't broken at all."

Instead, as Bridges, Oakley and four others noted in their letter to Powell, Abshir was one of the most prominent signatories to a 1990 manifesto calling on Barre to reinstate the constitution and hold free and fair elections. He was arrested again with other signers, but their treason trial was canceled after protests in Mogadishu.

Barre was forced from power in 1991, and the starving country was torn apart by civil war. In a separate letter endorsing Petri's bill, April Glaspie, who served as the U.N. senior political adviser in Somalia, remembered traveling with Abshir "through shot and shell" as they worked to unify the country. She said Abshir took great risks "as he anticipated and advised us on the security dangers facing the U.N. and the remaining U.S. military and civilian personnel" while she was there.

Glaspie said that "no other Somali leader was prepared to risk his life to end the secession." Eventually, Abshir was forced to flee the chaos, first to Djibouti and then to Saudi Arabia. He said doctors in Saudi Arabia advised him to go to the United States to get treatment for his son.

Abshir's daughter Dega said INS officials asked her father for the first time in December for various papers, including a copy of an airline ticket out of the country, the only item he did not submit. He said he did not buy a ticket because he did not know where he should go or when. Abshir said it is too dangerous for him to go back to Somalia, and officials at the Saudi Embassy in Washington have refused to renew his permit to live there. He said they told him he would first have to go back to Saudi Arabia.

"That's a Catch-22," said Ganzglass, the attorney helping Abshir. "A private bill can't be used on his behalf if he leaves the country. He has to stay here."

Staff researcher Karl Evanzz contributed to this report.

© 2003 The Washington Post Company

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