During Farah's first month in office, which was a few months after the September 11 attacks in 2001, he said the United States would be welcome to deploy troops to Somalia for the first time since the withdrawal of US forces from the UN missions of the 1990s, and to help monitor terrorist activities in the country. He was referring to Al-Itihaad Al-Islamiya (AIAI), which the US did name as a terrorist organization. On December 15, 2001, he stated there were no members of Al-Qaeda in Somalia, though a rival warlord claimed there were 50 armed fighters of the terrorist organization who had entered the country. In any event, the United States did not deploy any troops to Somalia at the time.