Last week, European investigators slammed the US for its handling of terror suspects. But little seems to have changed. Now, the CIA has set up shop on the Horn of Africa.When Swedish citizen Saafia Benaouda, 17 years old and pregnant, left on a multi-stop trip through the Persian Gulf region with her husband, 25-year-old Mounir Awad, in December, they were looking forward to an exciting Christmas vacation. It didn't take long, however, for their adventure holiday to deteriorate into a nightmare. Following a stop in Dubai, the couple decided to make an ill-advised detour into Somalia -- for a quick holiday stop in a country torn by civil war. At the time of their trip, fundamentalist Muslim militias and groups allied with the unstable transitional government were involved in heavy fighting.
"I love to travel and wanted to get to know another Muslim country," Saafia Benaouda says in justification of her unusual itinerary. A substantial degree of naiveté seems to also have played a role: Benaouda reports she had not read the newspaper for "two or three weeks" while in Dubai and had not checked other media either. She says she knew nothing about the unstable situation in Somalia and the official warnings not to travel there.
She wasn't impressed with the country anyway: "Somalia wasn't at all what I expected. I didn't like it there," says the daughter of a Moroccan, whose mother converted to Islam and directs a Muslim organization in Sweden. "I think Somalis don't like white people." But that wasn't the worst thing that happened to her on her trip to Somalia.
When Ethiopian troops entered Somalia around New Year's Day, she fled towards the Kenyan border with her husband. That's where it happened: "I heard shooting everywhere. There were three US soldiers with the US flag on their uniform, and 10 Kenyans," the 17-year-old remembers. The men were apparently part of the Kenyan Anti-Terrorism Police, which is heavily financed by the United States and is part of the US-sponsored, $100 million East Africa Counter-Terrorism Initiative.
On Jan. 27, 2007, Saafia was flown to Mogadishu in Somalia on an African Express Airlines flight (flight number AXK527), along with 84 other "terror suspects," including several children.
US citizens were present at each of these stops, Saafia's husband Mounir Awad told SPIEGEL. "When we landed, we were immediately photographed by Americans in civilian clothing," he say, adding that he and the others were repeatedly insulted as "Qaida bastards."
By John Goetz, Marcel Rosenbach and Holger Starks
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