The NY Times erroneously, or perhaps purposely, blurred the lines between the PMPF and PIA, which are two vastly different security organs in Somalia’s Puntland state, and which have different methods of operation and means of accessing support from the outside world.

Members of the Somali diaspora in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom have strongly condemned a falsified article written by Mark Mazzetti and Eric Schmitt.

The article, titled ‘Private Army Formed to Fight Somali Pirates Leaves Troubled Legacy,’ erroneously claimed that shadowy security firms had created a maritime security force in northeastern Somalia, but the United Nations Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea (SEMG) published a 2012 report citing that the security firms, namely the Pathfinder Corporation, had more than once offered to furnish documentation regarding their efforts in Somalia.

Mazzetti and Schmitt also fabricated a connection between the anti-piracy Puntland Maritime Police Force (PMPF) and its role in combating Islamic militants in the region, even claiming support from the US-based Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA does not cooperate with the PMPF, instead it cooperates with the Puntland Intelligence Agency (PIA) in the strict role of fighting terrorism.

The NY Times erroneously, or perhaps purposely, blurred the lines between the PMPF and PIA, which are two vastly different security organs in Somalia’s Puntland state, and which have different methods of operation and means of accessing support from the outside world.

Mazzetti and his cohort Schmitt also sent mixed messages in the article about the PMPF being abandoned. In one instance, the confused NY Times writers claim that the PMPF were roaming their camps unassisted, while in another instance they claimed that the PMPF had deserted their camps to sell their equipment. Which lie were the NY Times writers attempting to pass off in the end?

Another claim by the NY Times was that the PMPF had run out of funding and logistical support, despite the fact that Puntland secured both funding from the UAE and a training contract from Bancroft Global Development in June of this year, following an anti-piracy conference in Dubai.

The nail in the coffin for the latest incitement of instability in Somalia by the NY Times are the photographs of the second anniversary of the PMPF’s foundation published by the Somali journalists of Raxanreeb Broadcast Radio on the same day as the NY Times article, which show a busy camp staffed by Somali figureheads and their Western counterparts, including a brief aviation show by the first locally-Somali pilots in post-war Somalia.

The NY Times should feel compelled to pull the article and discipline their staff for partaking in the age-old custom of attempting to revive syndicated journalism’s violent romanticism towards Africa. This is a publication that has a history of hiring dubious journalists who later go on to fabricate entire series’ of stories, but when it concerns the stability of a struggling nation, we will take no shortcuts in exposing the lies of big media.

DissidentNation.com