Links exist between al Qaeda and al-Shabaab

I was quoted in an article in The Ethiopian Reporter titled "Somalia on track to becoming next Afghanistan" (reprints in Ethiopian Review and Somaliland Press). Here is the brief quote:

David Shinn, former State Department coordinator in Somalia and the U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia from 1996 to 1999, told me that while it’s important to avoid overstating the links between Al Qaeda and al-Shabab, those links do exist.

The passage seems to be taken from my recent interview with Michael Smerconish of The Philadelphia Inquirer. See here for more information, including a transcript of the parts of the interview that did not make it into the article.