In two separate articles (January 15, 2008 and September 11, 2008) Hallinan defends the Islamic Court Union as a force for stability in Somalia.  The stability that Hallinan predicted never came to pass.  Instead, the Islamic Court Union’s call for a caliphate caused Ethiopia to invade and install the current government of moderate Islamists, which is widely backed by the West.  The Islamic Courts Union reformed under their new name, al Shabaab, which is a merciless and extremist militia with extensive links to al Qaeda.

In both articles Hallinan insists that Somalia is a tragedy worse than Darfur.  This is Hallinan’s only reference to Darfur, and one of the very few references to Darfur at all in the Berkeley Daily Planet.  Darfur is dismissed as a second rate tragedy, as compared to Gaza and Somalia.  For the record, approximately 400 times as many people have died in Darfur as in Gaza.