I pointed in an entry late last month to US passivity as an Al-Qaeda linked Islamist army, the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts (SCIC), slowly takes over Somalia. An op-ed I published on Monday in the New York Post expands and updates it.

Now, the New York Times says that a UN report reveals that 720 Somali Islamists fought alongside Hizballah in Lebanon earlier this year, where they received training and weapons. According to the report, in mid-July, Aden Hashi Farah, a SCIC leader, personally selected the 720 combat-hardened fighters to travel to Lebanon and fight alongside Hizballah. It also identifies Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Syria of supplying the Somali Islamists with arms, advisers and men.

Does the State Department still believe that"working with the Arab League" - the Saudis and others who are funding SCIC as well as supplying many of its fighters - to somehow form a coalition between the failing Somali government and SCIC is actually in the American national interest?