somaliaPodesta Group is handling Somalia under a  $120K, one-month pact to communicate its priority issues to the U.S. government decision-makers, members of the policy community and the U.S. press.

Podesta's contract is through the Shulman, Rogers, Gandal, Pordy & Ecker law firm. 

The Al-Shabab Somalian militant group took responsibility for the attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, that resulted in the deaths of 61 civilians and six security personnel.

That attack by the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamic organization was in retaliation of Kenya’s intervention in Somalia’s civil war. It led to the ouster of Al-Shabab from Somalia’s capital city of Mogadishu.

Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta announced today that Kenyan forces retook the mall and “ashamed and defeated” Al-Shabab.

Five militants were killed and 11 were taken hostage. An unknown number of attackers escaped in the chaos of the exiting crowd of shoppers.