Mr. Oakley remembers a night in June 1993 when a truck piled high with weapons was smuggled out of Osman Ato's compound just days before his garage was bombed. When United Nations troops dug up the huge sand berms blocking roads near Osman Ato's garage, they found weapons caches. In a recent interview, Osman Ato said his garages were back in business making technicals. Late last year, his car drove over a land mine in western Somalia and the explosion broke both his feet. Osman Ato said that when he was imprisoned by the American military, he was handcuffed and blindfolded for long periods of time.
American diplomats deny it.
But Mr. Oakley said Osman Ato's health had so deteriorated because of neglect and malnutrition that he had to be transferred to a hospital in Baidoa. In 1993, the day before the Americans bombed his garage and with tension and anti-American hatred building in Mogadishu, he invited a reporter for tea at his house, just down the street from his garage. He did not talk about politics, but about the CNN program on cholesterol that he was watching.