the black gold of somalia. of charcoalunks sell for $4 million. the mountains of charcoal keep getting bigger as fresh supplies alive dale -- arrived daily. charcoal for more than 50 years. >> charcoal supports me and the people -- from the one who cuts the trees and the one who burns a this and those who would not have anything to do. but the trees are god-given. >> charcoal is one of the biggest exports in somalia. >> we must of this massive destruction to the environment. another trading commodity gets the mainative as rivers start disappearing. >> so much so that land is disappearing fast. he has eight children and has been making charcoal for more than 80 years. he digs up peat and sets it on fire. opportunitiesew here. charcoal is the only way that i can freak -- feed my family. >> that are trying to cut off funding to al-shabbab fighters. this is a resource that is yet to be interrupted. >> there is a dollar tax for every bag of charcoal, and they get $440 -- >>. >> we found evidence that charcoal is sti

charcoal from somalia is banned by the united nations and u.s. government, but trade is booming. there is demand soaring in countries like saudi arabia and the uae. we have this report on how merchants are illegally benefiting from the destruction of somalia's forest. black gold.omalia's in this port city, there are million charcoal works. they've been getting bigger as supplies arrive almost daily. >> charcoal supports millions of people. those who burn it, those who transported who otherwise would not have anything to do, but the trees are god-given. >> charcoal is one of somalia's biggest exports. the cutting of trees for charcoal has become a free for all. it gets more and more lucrative. land for grazing is disappearing fast. he has a children and has been making charcoal for more than 28 years. to do that, he digs up trees and there is the wood before setting it on fire. >> there are few opportunities here. everyone is looking for a way to survive. charcoal is the only way i can feed my family. >> the united nations band charcoal exports from somalia to cut off funding for

is there a secret war happening in somalia? questions about the threat of the terror group al-shabaab and whether their threat is getting more stronger and powerful despite what our government is telling us. i want to make things more secure. [ whirring ] [ dog barks ] i want to treat mo dogs. ♪ our business needs more cases. [ male announcer ] where do you want to take your business? i need help selling art. [ male announcer ] from broadband to web hosting to mobile apps, small business solutions from at&t have the security you need to get you there. call us. we can show you how at&t solutions can help you do what you do... even better. ♪ jenna: here's a question today. is the united states waging a secret war in somalia? that's a question raised by "foreign policy" magazine this month in response to numerous reports that america is desperately trying to help somalia ward off a growing islamist terrorist group called al-shabaab. this is in contrast with the obama administration declaring somalia as a major success. it was reco

conflict relation, syria, somalia, and mali. this is 90 minutes. >> it is my honor to welcome you to the brookings institution this morning. we are going to hear from a friend of this institution. a friend and a colleague to a number of us in the room, jeff feldman. he is, as you know, the undersecretary for political affairs at the united nations. this is a post he has held for a little over a year. jeff, i suspect, it feels rather longer than that. he has participated in many much our forums, including the u.s. and islam foreyums. today he will talk about some tough areas of the world that need the very best diplomacy there is. both on the part of the united nations and on the part of a number of countries represented here in this room today. i will come to one of those in particular in a moment. jeff brings to his present job the experience of 26 years as a foreign service officer. he has had many tours. i think it is safe to say, none of them easy. he has been posted in lebanon as the u.s. ambassador. he has been posted in a

somalia and they are so they think and people who are little are surrounding us journalists. in so there are many people in so that the u.s. journalist what kind of future that this man bring to the world we don't want his money and we want a world where the model very use that are going to be able to we be able to have a world which is peaceful we are going to be able to have a world where we can hear with children being safe now to morrow obama can come with his checkbook but if he doesn't like one of my friends what you can do is send it don't kill him and kill everybody around him ok richard if you want to jump in in washington please do yeah yeah. i think we need to be careful as we talk about africa as. you say you know the america does this in africa and china does that in africa well you know i think we should bear in mind that africans have their own agency in the process very good so has of. people i mean. it's all very well in south africa to talk about drones and we can we can talk about that but south africa doesn't face. threat from serious threat from terrorism

somalia and they are so if we can people who are surrounding us journalist . in so there are many people in the us journalists what kind of future this man bring to the world we don't want to use money i want a world with the model very use that are going to be able to we be able to have a world which is peaceful we are going to be able to have a world where we can hear with children being safe now to morrow obama can come with his checkbook but if he doesn't like one of my friends what you can do is send it don't kill him and kill everybody around him. if you want to jump in in washington please do yeah yeah i was hoping to jump in there i think we need to be careful as we talk about africa as. you say you know the america does this in africa and china does that in africa well you know i think we should bear in mind that africans have their own agency in the process very good so has of these people i mean. it's all very well in south africa to talk about drones and we can we can talk about that but south africa doesn't face threats from serious threat from te

somalia and they are so if we can people who are listening to our surrounding us terrorist. in so there are many people in the u.s. terror list what kind of future that this man bring to the world we don't want his money i want a world where the model very use that are going to be able to we be able to have a world which is peaceful we are going to be able to have a world where we can hear with children being safe now to morrow obama can come with his checkbook but if he doesn't like one of my friends what you can do is send it don't kill him and kill everybody around him. if you want to jump in in washington please do yeah yeah i was hoping to jump in there i think we need to be careful as we talk about africa as. you say you know the america does this in africa and china does that in africa well you know i think we should bear in mind that africans have their own agency in the process very good so has of these people i mean. it's all very well in south africa to talk about drones and we can we can talk about that but south africa doesn't face threats from serious threat fr

over thirteen million people in somalia kenya ethiopia eritrea and djibouti are once again threatened by famine. the u.n. approaches the international community for immediate food aid. you know the only thing you notice are children from the most horrific that we've seen over the years in fact we grew up learning about africa's hunger problems. that the african people always suffer from hunger and the so-called developed world always sends food. is there perhaps something wrong with the food aid mechanism. if you're looking at all this money that has been pumped in the fifty's and you're still starving then it means that something's not right incomes or the interest of those who are putting to be assisted in kenya or any other african country to improve difficult security plan hate. will be popped. and you can see it even to be in a waste because it becomes almost like. a business. to do what. it gives once you can put together speaking we're looking at a very wealthy continent which has been now sustained into public teat just before the aid in the street and that's why we need to pu

also has paramilitary and joint commanders that use it as a staging ground to run operations into somalia and elsewhere. they trained forces from ethiopia and uganda in the u.s. is contemplating building another drone-based where they will be targeting a group called al qaeda and you also have a base in ethiopia and the relatively new base on the arabian finance law in saudi arabia. i think we are going to see an intensification of covert u.s. actions certainly in africa. we havarti seen it happen here in yemen. we are living in a the moment where we have a popular democratic president who is a constitutional lawyer by trade in training and who won the nobel peace prize and campaigned to reduce the excesses of the bush era and he would close on time of day, what and torture, which shut down this around the world. but what happened is that many of the most egregious aspects of the apparatus that was built up by bush and their cohorts had been intensified or continued in some of them have been rebranded and there is an attempt to legitimize policies that i think many liberals had opposed to

let me turn now to somalia with the potential turning point.eeks ago, for the second time this year, and for the u.n., somalia represents a challenge of how in the face of crisis demanding attention, the u.s. is sustain regional focus on a process that the promise of real success, the promise of real success, but still today needs to be nurtured. since 1990s, it's been perhaps convenient to look away from somalia, but clearly, one of the lessons of the past decade from kabul to mogadishu is failed and failing states pose a threat to the people and the region around them and world at large. the task of ending anarchy and building stable government in smoal ya took on great strategic as well as humanitarian significance. the u.n. invested hsm with partners like the african union and key governments like the united states to help turn the tide in that country. the u.n. helped mediate the 2008 agreement laying out a road map for transition that was completed last year when somalia's elect the a new government. today, the country has, for the first

but some states we cannot control so that is why it is a worry in places like somalia, even parts ofpakistan that is a much stronger state to have very, etc. complete leander control so there are also worries. so we've all the new strategy with the use of drones, a special forces forces, the training of local forces to help us. we're hoping that strategy will slowly down. it has happened as in the boston marathon bombings. but because the ideology, the feeling of victimization into empowering them has a small number of people so that would be almost impossible to stop. we could do a better job of uncovering it to be more aware but the whole element in stateless terrorist groups is a factor it will be for the foreseeable future. >>host: what percent of foreign policy is focused on the road? >> a great deal. it does not go. we have a problem with china from time to time or our european allies, and certainly recurrence of power struggles with the government is in russia but also very small states but because of the nuclear factor or chemical or biological, they attract a lot of attentio

. >>> members of japan's maritime self-defense forces will have an extended call of duty off somalia. japanese leaders have added one year to their anti-piracy mission. commanders currently contribute two destroyers and two patrol aircraft to international forces policing the area, but they were due to come home this month. cabinet members on tuesday voted for the extension. they said the situation remains unpredictable despite a decrease in pirate attacks. commanders will provide one destroyer to the multinational force on the request of other powers. japanese leaders confirm the self-defense forces are permitted to undertake the action. they say the mission in somalia is not a military but a policing activity. >>> defense officials in tokyo have been monitoring chinese ships. and they're concerned by what they see. they say authorities in beijing have ramped up their activity around japanese controlled islands in the east china sea. their white paper on defense policy says chinese vessels have repeatedly entered japanese waters around the senkaku islands. china and taiwan both claim

. >> somalia may be facing a new crisis, this time caused by bar it is clay's bank, which has traditionally been the main channel for somalies in the u.k. to transfer money home. the bank says they're shutting down the service entirely. >> there are well over 100,000 somalies living in the u.k. if they have anything in common it's that theysen money home again. that's where barclay's has come in, they transfer the money. amina has been sending money back to her grandmother for 20 years as so malia slid into chaos. she said the prospect of not being able to do it anymore would be a complete nightmare. >> i don't want to think about what's going to happen. it's going to be catastrophic. it's going to be awful. ordinary somaly people in somalyland and so malia will starve to death, they won't be able to pay their rent they won't have food at all, they won't have the basic standards of living we here in the west take for didn'ted. been the 's had here, but they fear money laundering and what it could do to them by implication. abuse of the services can have significant negative consequences for

some somalia. and yemen. pakistan this. a state. in control of the government. those are the worries so and starting to deal with them. the strategy of use of drones. special forces training local forces and indigenous forcees to help us. that is what we are hoping that strategy will slow it down there. is always a feeling however that the terrorists will get through. it happened in the boston marathon bombings. some got through. being make organized. but ideology of the feeling of victimization of a radical idol gement and empowering them has a hold on a certain number of people. that will be almost impossible to stop. with he can do a better job of uncovering it. and to be more aware of it. but the state less terrorist groups are a important factor and will be for the foreseeable future. dr. henriksen what percentage of attention is focused on the rogues? >> a great deal. actually been. it is. it will go. we have the problem with china time-to-time and dealings with european allies and reoccurance of the power struggles with the putin government in russia. a g

that's over $1 billion a year. >> in somalia? >> our political missions overseas are from the regular budget. >> one of the points that just made very strongly that it so very obvious in syria, when the permanent members of the security council united in action, the bpa becomes much easier. what is your reflection on that kind of conundrum? >> and go straight central issue -- it goes to a central issue. something that strengthens the organization is that they have both. and blends principle with reality and power. they are able to float their power through the institution when they choose to do so. you also have the universal membership and the charter under the principle that jeff talked about. what is interesting is how differently these two things get because of the conference. -- because of the kind of conflict. first tier, second-tier, or third tier. when you are in a small civil war in central africa where the great powers have no fundamental say, that is diplomacy that jeff is talking about, persuasion or principle or the

and soviet union were trying to gain zones of influence countries like somalia ethiopia and kenya received help. there's a lot of pieces with this would be easy to prove to them or the police doesn't mean that the united states is doing business to actually providing you know the same time. there's no politics behind going in there we're trying to do things in a way that is most effective way to save lives so i don't think that criticism really holds true. i'm honored to work for this organization i think we do fabulous workers who are partners in the united nations and it's really inspiring. when the bug arrives with an american plug on needs from the american people. if they're the first thing is this the appreciation of the american people because if somebody helps you then you have to appreciate the. country that assists your people in this tough in the approach you to bring in the investments. you see the be very much willing to tell them good them come and if you're not just doing the the the funding been in the hole in last year. this child needs to study what their wisdom comes wit

your of the oil industry which is enormously don't wish to avoid future about somalia campaign contributions but this is a very very short law if you proceed oh dear if washington d.c. and they've got a number of people on their leash. with only five hundred thirty congress members the ratio of lobbyists to congress in d.c. is almost one hundred to one there's probably one hundred thousand people in the lobbying business in washington d.c. so it's big business after the federal government lobbying is the next biggest business in washington d.c. . lobbyists function as the razor to cart off for big industry making sure congress does their bidding but big oil uses a far more aggressive means of tightening its leash around congress' neck here's the reality you're sitting there is a billionaire you make money a wall street making money maybe your ex. no but you should know contribute to some fully front organization which can then what millions and millions of millions of dollars on television ads into campaigns for this country what it really is saying is that we are giving unbelievable power t

. >> i was on the ground in yemen, afghanistan and somalia and i went to villages where one of the first strikes president obama authorized in yemen killed 46 people. 14 women and 21 children. who was the target in that accident in the white house has not provided any information. we say if you're a military age male in a certain region of this country we're going to kill you and later say you were a terrorist without ever providing any information that you were actually involved. >> they had information on these people. they just can't tell us. >> that's not true. stephen: how do you know that? they're telling us that they have it. wait. they say that they have it. but them can't tell us because then the enemy will know the means by which they got that information. >> so you have an undying faith in the obama administration's ability to tell the truth on these issues? >> stephen: no, no. i believe in our troops. >> this isn't about a troops. stephen: it is is about the troops. >> this is about analysts sitting in trailer in the southwest of the united states operating drones that are bo

. >> yes, but you have to make some changes to avoid what is happening into somalia. >> accost cairo, dozens of muslim brothers have been detained. 36 of them, including the former president, have been giving travel bans. a spokesman cap is language conciliatory. >> we knowledge that we have made mistakes. theknow the economy and mubarak regime. everybody knows the story. that when you're is not enough to repair everything. >> among the lines of the morsi supporters, there is much more public anger and impatience. >> they are constraining us. the people, they have a lot of energy, they are against what happened, we are against this, we excepted democracy. to egypt exists now. one is made up of the supporters of the former president. the other is interior square and all of the egyptians who believe that their country and their revolution has another chance. someone needs to bridge the gap between them or egypt will not be able to solve its anonymous problems. >> president obama says else egypt returns to democratically elected civilian government as soon as possible. of all sidesmands

will remove tariffs and .ther barriers to brai trade two people have been killed in an attack in somalia a suicidewas hit by bomber. it is not clear who is responsible for the blast. this followed several other attacks. 30,000 congolese refugees have fled their homes to seek safety in neighboring uganda. many say they ran for their lives after a group of rebels started terrorizing their villages. we report from the makeshift refugee camp that has been set up in western uganda. too young to understand what was going on when rebels attacked his village in the dark. his mother grabbed him from his bed and along with her other nine children, they ran for their lives. >> we heard the rebels coming but they -- we did nothing. they caught a person and kill him. we escaped because we ran away. >> this is their new home. this is overrun with congolese who fled the rebels. nearby for this river runs along the border. on the bridge there has been a .onstant stream of refugees ugandan soldiers keep watch over the new arrivals. tens of thousands have crossed since thursday. they just keep coming. jus

she sends money every month to remember granny, who still lives in rural somalia. >> we send her money, and it is quick transfer. she gets it straight away. i don't know what would happen. she would probably die of hunger. it wouldn't be nice. >> under british law, many transfer shots have to hold a recognized banking account. many opted for barclays. but it is closing several accounts for fear of cash reaching the wrong places. they say some don't have the proper checks in place to spot criminal activity and could unwittingly be facilitating money laundering and terrorist financing. the bank said it remains happy to serve companies who have strong anti-financial crime controls, but are asking the others to find another bank. when people think about a -- assistance to developing countries, they think about the united nations and big charities. but the fact is economists have calculated that the amount of money sent home by family and friends living in richer countries is far more than all of that aid put together. >> this teaching assistant has now done what she sees as her duty to a g

for example, the somali americans who have traveled abroad to fight in somalia. i think they still feel rather lucky that the of lamont -- muslim-american communities are reasonably well integrated into well economically. when you look at the cases that have been brought by the fbi over the years, there are these pockets of individuals who are self radicalizing or are parts of groups, and that worries people and keeps the counter- terrorism officials up at night. >> thank you. >> one week after the president, mohamed morsi, was removed as president, there was a warrant issued for members of the muslim brotherhood movement, a move guaranteed to affect tensions. first, we have this report about how one family is being driven apart by the conflict. for many in the new egypt, he is a hero, one of the most vocal opponents of mohamed morsi and his muslim brotherhood. for that.d a price he was jailed for insulting dr. morsi, for calling him a murderer on a talk show. just a few weeks ago while his son was still in jail, which met his father, a staunch supporter of the t

for example, pakistan, somalia, yemen.urrent head of the cia has a desire to put this authority back in the military's hands, who -- where it would be in legal authority, but right now it is something that only a handful of lawmakers can have complete access to. , you know, a lot of the controversies and well-informed because so much of it is secret -- so much of the controversy isn't well-informed because a much of it is secret. i will said that even with the legal authority the obama administration is given to the use of these drones, the actual use of drugs is declining. -- the actual use of drones is declining. the peak year, 2010, the united states dropped something like 110 weapons from drones in pakistan. this year so far it has been 13. it is going down. i think the president is taking a closer look, is controlling more of it himself, and we are getting a little bit -- we are getting a bit out of the drone fever, where it becomes so tempting to use this against a bad guy target where you do it without thinking of t

investigators, they say they asked the menlo park company for information on suspected pirates operating in somaliaut facebook simply refused. the u.n. monitoring group says it has repeatedly asked face book for information on accounts belonging to individuals involved in hijackings and hostage taking, but so far, received no help. facebook says the u.n. has no legal authority to demand data. the company has faced recent pressure regarding privacy after it was revealed it did cooperate with the nsa, allowing access to users' pictures, e-mail and video chat. >>> speaking of facebook, how about that facebook stock? meantime, the company made history this morning by finally rising, finally rising above that price it set at its ipo. scott mcgrew, most companies, they don't take more than a year to get that done. >> john, most companies rise above their initial price the first few minutes of trading. the idea is to have that slow, steady growth in your stock but facebook went the other way, until this morning. facebook shares had never risen above where they were may 18th of last year, $38. but for a br

the mismatch or over the world about this and we don't want this to turn to be a long war like in somalia we don't want this to be a new cold war between. two powers in the world we don't want be to return to civilian or this why we support of all international efforts for solving this is the the problem and we think that solving the problem will not be by continuing the fighting. no almost one. a hundred thousand people killed you have a government which uses. a little planes aircrafts heavy artillery to show that its own people well the shell rebels rebel positions who are able to. see really as you see the civilians and then we have the opposition which some of part of the positions who are making brutality you know we can see on both sides we have to see the two coins i think we will be mistaking you for we take sides we have to see the two sides of the coin the brutality going on. and we have to see that many innocent people the hundreds of thousands of people millions of people displaced they were not dispersed by one party but i think when we are talking about the displaced people

grazing in this region, especially in somalia, and the recent rains have been good. >> mohammed walked 30 kilometers to get his goats to the market, but he's worried about what happens the next time there's a drought. >> what we need when the rain stops the tanks and wells, we don't have machinery to dig. without water, we can't survive. >> investing in animal byproducts is one way of earning extra money for when times gets tough. the u.n. and the u.k. support this project to make organic soaps from bone marrow and animal fat. and the jewelry from the bones of camels. >> you're vision and goal for most want them to be self-sustainable, and in the country, they can produce livestock. >> one of the biggest areas to big industry in somaliland is that it's self-declared. the world doesn't recognize it is sovereign. it can't be expanded without foreign investment. somaliland is just beginning to develop its livestock industry. with a little help, it could become one of the world's most important exporters. >> 12 people are dead in pakistan after a train hit a rick shaw. it happened near the

drones now over two hundred innocent brothers and sisters in pakistan and yemen and somalia and counting no serious debate about it the man in discloses the video and those. who were involved in a crime go free the person who exposed the crime he sent to jail for life i mean this is the level of hypocrisy that we're dealing with and this is been the challenge of this is the founding of this nation and the who own the progress of the of history will just go down swinging like. on the pill the truth and bear witness to the. can we talk about partisan politics for a second. tour the i had dinner the other day with a friend who's who used to be a republican and still is fairly well connected in those circles a white republican and he said the gerrymandering that's going on is that there's a lot of people scratching their heads looking at all the republican jerry minutes going on trying to figure out why republicans would go into a congressional district that's already consistently electing democrats and still keep it democratic but they would move a lot of african-americans in that district

the mismatch or over the world about this and we don't want this to turn to be a long war like in somalia we don't want this to be a new cold war between. two powers in the world we don't want be to return to civilian or this why we support of all international efforts for solving this is the the problem and we think that solving the problem will not be by continuing the fighting. no almost one. hundred thousand people killed you have a government which uses. a little please aircrafts heavy artillery to show that its own people well the shell rebels rebel positions and who are able to. see really as you see the civilians and then we have the opposition which some of part of the positions who are making brutality you know we can see on both sides we have to see the two coins i think we will be mistaking you for we take sides we have to see the two sides of the coin the brutality going on. and we have to see that many innocent people the hundreds of thousands of people millions of people displaced they were not dispersed by one party but i think when we talk about the displaced people in sy

in yemen and somalia has exactly the same status as a child in newtown connecticut in the southside of chicago in koreatown in the brown barrio. own indigenous peoples reservation i am an internationalist across the board. including it includes the rude. part forgive my interrupting you but we've got to take notice that will be right back more of tonight's conversations with dr cornel west right after the break. when the great speed blind to what is happening in their country. the american dream is disappearing. the houses with. the poor are left hopeless the streets are full of angry crown. fighting against. i would rather as questions for people in positions of power instead of speaking on their behalf and that's why you can find my show larry king now right here on r.t. question more. is it possible to navigate the economy with all the details of his dick smith and for me and media hype you up to date by decoding the mainstream status if in your right. and welcome back to conversations with great minds and speaking with dr cornell west professor of philosophy at christian practice a

[laughter] they delivered two million bananas to the starving folks in somalia. they go from being perceived as terrorists into being great liberators. >> but they never know. they have no idea that any of this is happening all the way through. that is sort of how we got going. a lot of times when people write books, novels, and i do not want to get to inside baseball, but they have what is called a plot. [laughter] we did not really have that. [laughter] it was improvisational novel writing or neither one of his new with the other was going to send. there really was you could never change it. you had to go with it. our motive was almost entirely revenge. oh, ok, i see what you give me here, mr. funny man. you get this. >> that was like having a deranged pen pal. ted kosinski was writing to me, ok. i would see this chapter. i would have no knowledge whatsoever how he would have reacted to what i had just sent him a few days before. our only goal was to react and to advance the "plot." i would read it, and i would go, oh, man, what am i going to do with this? abou

and afghanistan and pakistan, and have challenges but between somalia and yemen and that area, they at least kind of rival it in terms of chaotic violence, and the official number is classified, but it's a triple digit number of u.s. military personnel, and that interarea that are doing a reasonably effective job of containing the violence in yemen and somalia from spreading out, versus the still, i think -- goshers close to 100,000 if you count nato and everything, still in afghanistan. hough did they do it? they did it because they built the capacity of the ethopia, of kenya, uganda, of to help us. they cared about somalia being chaotic as well so wasn't like we were just paying them to do our bidding. we had mutual interests. we built their local capacity. and they're doing most of the work. and by the way, this vastly more effective if you have local population do it than if you have the u.s. military officer. so i think that partnership and at the same time military is trained those folk is just mentioned but you also have a ton of development projects in there, in kenya. that mix