The Janson Option by Paul Garrison Page A

arrive.”
    â€œIn Mogadishu? Who’s up? Who’s down?”
    â€œHome Boy Gutaale. He’s nicknamed Home Boy for ‘He who came home.’ Gutaale prospered abroad, here in America, with a heating-oil business. But instead of just hanging out in a dollar country, Gutaale went back home and put himself on the line—long before things started calming down. Gutaale is much admired by the wealthy expatriate Somalis who control Somali business from abroad. It’s in their economic interest that Gutaale imposes stability.”
    â€œHow would Home Boy do that?”
    â€œYou could call him a warlord. Very, very good at it. He is a mythic figure, secular, not religious, allied by blood and marriage to many clans. Ordinary people love him too. He’s got the common touch. Wears a bushy red beard people see a mile away. And also, he’s pushing the old dream of Greater Somalia, which they all love him for.”
    â€œThe empire?” asked Janson.
    â€œBelieve it. Five hundred years ago the king of Soomaaliweyn ruled the Horn of Africa from Mombasa all the way to the Red Sea. Home Boy reminds the world’s most infamous failed state of our prouder history. People have begun to call him the George Washington of Soomaaliweyn.”
    â€œWon’t Kenya and Ethiopia object?” Janson asked drily, thinking that there was nothing like a war with the neighbors to pull a nation together.
    Hassan replied with a dismissive shrug, “Did your George Washington give a hoot for British objections?”
    â€œHave you ever met Gutaale?”
    â€œHe spoke at one of our fund-raisers. Haven’t seen him since he went back and that was years ago.”
    â€œBut I understood you’re back and forth from Mog. Never bumped into him there?”
    Hassan smiled. He straightened his necktie. He cast an appreciative eye over the Embraer’s luxurious interior. Then he shook his head. “Our stations changed, shall we say? Realtors tend not to bump into warlords.”
    â€œUnless they’re looking for a safe retreat abroad.”
    â€œGutaale is not looking for safety.”
    â€œWho else is up?”
    â€œThe radical wingnut Mullah Abdullah al-Amriki—‘The American.’ Muslim cleric. You can see him rapping in al-Shabaab videos on YouTube. He wears a long beard and rants against Western oppression. Abdullah, of course, means ‘slave of God.’ But he’s also called ‘Thumper.’”
    â€œThumper?”
    â€œHe has a habit of pounding his chest when he raps. Thump . Thump . Thump . Here’s the crazy thing: his parents emigrated to Maine when he was a teenager and he spent a couple of miserable years in an American high school. For some reason microwave ovens really annoy him. His raps are always bitching that Somalia doesn’t have any microwaves. Like I say, the Thumper is a wingnut.”
    â€œBut you say he’s up?”
    â€œBelieve it. He is a hell of a fund-raiser for al-Shabaab, and he commands their foreign fighters. Inshallah, a CIA Predator takes him out or the pirates shoot him.”
    â€œWhy would pirates shoot him?”
    â€œAbdullah al-Amriki declared piracy haram— religiously forbidden. Ordinary citizens thank him for that. They hate swaggering gangsters taking over their villages, roaring around their streets in SUVs. Needless to say, the pirates are not amused.”
    â€œWhich pirate would hit him?”
    â€œWhoever stops chewing khat long enough to concentrate. I expected ‘King’ Bashir would gun him down. Bashir had set up a sort of pirate ‘stock exchange’ in Puntland. By kicking in seed money to get a cut of the ransom, you could invest in hijacking without getting your feet wet. Bashir also organized a pirate coalition in response to the foreign navy pressure.”
    â€œBashir sounds like a comer.”
    â€œHe was. But I just heard a rumor that Bashir is out of