ON JUNE 5th, Islamist fighters loyal to the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) seized the Somali capital of Mogadishu. The ICU’s sudden consolidation of power has increased concerns that the anarchic African nation may serve as a terrorist haven similar to that of Afghanistan under the Taliban. But while a great deal of ink has been spilled on this subject since the fall of Mogadishu, entirely too much of it has been devoted to criticizing alleged American support for the secular Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT). The individuals that now control much of southern Somalia are the real story here, given that a number of key figures in the ICU can be directly linked not only to al Qaeda but also to the killing of a number of U.S. servicemen during Operation Restore Hope in Somalia–an act that forms a major component of the original 1998 US indictment of Osama bin Laden.