Canadian naval commander warned of Somalia's 'collusion' with pirates: Wikileaks

Ottawa (Canada), Feb.7 (ANI): Whistle-blowing web site WikiLeaks has revealed that a Canadian navy commander had warned about a collusion between Somali pirates and the transitional Somali government that's being backed by the West.

The cable, released by WikiLeaks over the weekend, according to the Globe and Mail, recounts what a Canadian frigate commander told diplomats in London after he worked at escorting food-aid ships off the coast of the Horn of Africa.

Navy Captain Chris Dickinson is said to have been warning officials that lines between government, pirates and terrorists were blurring in Somalia.

The remark is significant because it shows that experts were privately despairing of the TFG - a loose-knit coalition of Somali leaders who run a government in name only - even as many Western leaders were taking steps to prop it up as the war-torn country's last-ditch hope.

A U.S.-based Africa expert said in an interview Sunday that the new cable is revealing and significant.

"Certainly it bears credibility," said Peter Pham, of New York's National Committee of American Foreign Policy think tank.

"A lot of people would say that without the TFG, you have nothing. My argument would be consider that what you have is nothing - and nothing is nothing," Pham said. (ANI)