A LEADING US government consultant has warned that an Afghanistan-style assault on presumed terrorist targets in Somalia might prove “an expensive and pointless exercise in rearranging rocks”, writes Tony Allen-Mills. Ken Menkhaus, a North Carolina-based academic who advises the CIA, the Pentagon and the State Department on Somalia, said last week that only 10-12 Somalis had significant links to Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network. In a briefing paper, he claimed that reliable US intelligence was “exceedingly low”, increasing the risk of a repeat of the botched American intervention in 1993. Washington believes that Al-Itihaad, the radical Somali Islamist movement, may be helping to hide fugitives from the Afghan war. Menkhaus acknowledged that some form of American action in Somalia might become “necessary”. But he claimed an attack would have more to do with the “politics of symbolism” than with overcoming any genuine terrorist threat. In the briefing paper, obtained by The Sunday Times, Menkhaus said there were no Al-Itihaad bases or camps worth bombing. “The handful of bases they held are abandoned,” he said. A more realistic scenario might involve US special forces or their local allies launching “snatch and grab” operations to seize terrorists. Menkhaus said local authorities in Somalia were falling over one another to co-operate in the hope of securing both cash and political recognition. “Any non-Somali foolish enough to flee to Somalia stands an excellent chance of being turned over by his ‘hosts’,” the paper said. An assault against President Abdulkassim Salat Hassan and his precarious so-called Transitional National Government – regarded by some analysts as a front for Al-Itihaad – would be a mistake, said Menkhaus. “The TNG is not a Somali version of the Taliban.” The best bets for American action were surveillance and a drive to enlist the support of a small group of wealthy Somali businessmen, who are the real power brokers in the country.