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 regard, the United States did not deploy any troops to Somalia at the time. He was the primary representative of the TNG at the October 2002 Somali Reconciliation Conference held in Eldoret, Kenya. However, those efforts failed to produce a lasting settlement, since the TNG was heavily contested by the rival Somalia Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC). The Somali National Reconciliation Conference meetings of July 2003 finally settled problems between the TNG and the SRRC, but by then the TNG had lost most of its momentum and funding. The three-year mandate for the TNG officially ended in August 2003, but the organization continued to carry on between the formal date and the creation of the successor TNG of 2004. President Abdiqassim Salad removed the Prime Minister and the Parliamentary Speaker in August 2003; the no-confidence vote of the Parliament in December 2003 was undertaken to formalize the decision. Writing from Nairobi, Hassan Abshir and Abdallah Derow Isaak both said any attempts to extend the terms of the TNG were "unconstitutional." In 2004, Hassan Abshir Farah became the Fisheries Minister of the new Transitional Federal Government (TFG), which replaced the TNG. He is mostly active in the National Peace Process in the country. In late 2006, he secured a $55 million pirate-fighting contract with New York-based Top Cat Marine Security. On August 1, 2006, Farah resigned along with seven other ministers, in protest at Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Ghedi's postponement of talks with the Islamic Courts Union (ICU). He said "We had no option but to resign because we believe if the talks are postponed again it will affect the reconciliation efforts". In 2008, Farah launched a campaign to run for president of the autonomous Puntland state in the northeastern region's 2008 elections. Abdirahman Mohamud Farole was eventually elected to office in January of the following year. Following the establishment of the Federal Government of Somalia in August 2012, Farah began serving as a legislator in the new Federal Parliament.