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| U.S. pushes anti-terrorism in Africa | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jul 26 2005, 07:37 PM (365 Views) | |
| saver111 | Jul 26 2005, 07:37 PM Post #1 |
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U.S. pushes anti-terrorism in Africa Under long-term program, Pentagon to train soldiers of nine countries By Ann Scott Tyson The Washington Post Updated: 4:36 a.m. ET July 26, 2005 N'DJAMENA, Chad - The U.S. military is embarking on a long-term push into Africa to counter what it considers growing inroads of al Qaeda and other terrorist networks in poor, lawless and predominantly Muslim expanses of the continent. The Pentagon plans to train thousands of African troops in battalions equipped for extended desert and border operations, and to link the militaries of different countries with secure satellite communications. The initiative, with proposed funding of $500 million over seven years, covers Algeria, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Nigeria, Morocco and Tunisia -- with the U.S. military eager to add Libya if relations improve. The Pentagon is also assigning more military officers to U.S. embassies in the region, bolstering the gathering and sharing of intelligence, casing out austere landing strips for use in emergencies, and securing greater access and legal protections for U.S. troops through new bilateral agreements. Story continues below ↓ advertisement The thrust into Africa is vital to head off an infiltration by international terrorist groups, according to senior U.S. military, Pentagon and State Department officials. The groups are recruiting hundreds of members in Africa and Europe, attacking local governments and Western interests, and profiting from tribal smuggling routes to obtain arms, cash and hideouts, they say. Meanwhile, small groups of Islamic radicals are moving into Africa from Iraq, where Africans make up about a quarter of the foreign fighters, the officials say. • Full international coverage Foreshadowing a new phase in the war against terrorism, the Pentagon plan is to mobilize Africans to fight and preempt militant groups while only selectively using U.S. troops, who are already taxed by operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. But in mustering African forces, the U.S. military confronts not only a highly elusive enemy across a vast, desolate terrain, but also the competing agendas of authoritarian African governments and corrupt and chaotic militaries on the ground. Training with GI Joes "Arretez!" yelled Sgt. 1st Class Brian of the U.S. Army Special Forces, waving his arms at a squad of Chadian soldiers bounding over a dirt berm in a windblown stretch of desert south of Chad's capital, N'Djamena. It was the first mock assault of the morning, and the Chadians, wearing mismatched uniforms, appeared to have forgotten every element of what the Americans had taught them. They were spread out too widely, standing up on the berm instead of crawling low, and their squad leader was omitting crucial orders. "Tell them to check their men" for wounds, Brian shouted to an interpreter. It was only 7 a.m., but the energetic young Green Beret from Baltimore was exasperated. Citing security risks, the U.S. soldiers spoke on condition that only their first names be used. Brian and about 1,000 other U.S. troops fanned out into North and West Africa last month for a major exercise to lay the groundwork for the Trans-Sahara Counter Terrorism Initiative approved this spring. In three weeks of initial training, Brian's team from 10th Special Forces Group and a team from the National Guard's 20th Special Forces Group glimpsed the challenge ahead in Chad, the world's fifth-poorest country and, according to the anti-corruption group Transparency International, the third most corrupt. "It was like going to Mars," said Sgt. 1st Class Gary, a welder from Utica, N.Y., on the National Guard team. |
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| saver111 | Aug 8 2005, 07:55 PM Post #2 |
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US targets Sahara 'terrorist haven' By Catherine Fellows BBC, Mauritania Critics say the US is exaggerating the terrorism threat in Africa The US military has just concluded a major training operation in the Sahel region south of the Sahara desert, which it describes as its biggest exercise in Africa since World War Two. Washington believes the Sahara desert is a vast ungoverned wasteland and, hence, a haven for terrorists. But critics say the US is exaggerating the threat and fomenting trouble. Up to 1,000 US personnel and the armed forces of seven countries in the region took part in Flintlock 2005, a counter-terrorism training operation. The exercise's fictional scenario involved a terrorist group being chased across national borders from Mauritania in the west, through to Mali, Niger and finally Chad. "We've already had terrorism in the Sahel, it's a matter of how bad it could get," says Gen Charles Wald, the man responsible for putting the Sahara on the map as a new front in the war on terror. Dangerous myth For centuries, the Sahara, stretching from Mauritania to the Red Sea, has been criss-crossed by men carrying goods and ideas. But in the Western imagination, its dunes and planes remain a mysterious and dangerous region. This is a myth which many say is now being exploited with disastrous consequences. "For those who say it's overestimated, if you're one of the dead people in Mauritania, I don't think you've overestimated anything," says Gen Wald. Days before the Americans arrived in the region, 15 Mauritanian soldiers were killed in an attack on an army base on the north-east border with Algeria and Mali, which has been blamed on Islamic insurgents. The GSPC, or Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, claimed responsibility for the attack via a website. They boasted that they "planned an ambush for the Mauritanian apostate and puppet army, destroying seven vehicles and many members of Satan's army". GSPC, which formed in 1998, has its roots in Algeria's seven-year civil war and is suspected of having links with al-Qaeda. Estimates of numbers of GSPC members vary widely from a few hundred to as many as 4,000. Destabilisation Jeremy Keenan, a UK expert on the Sahara, says the GSPC website proves nothing. He does not think the group is responsible for the Mauritania border attack. "Pretty well everyone in the Sahara doesn't believe the GSPC have done it," he says. "The coincidence with Flintlock starting the day before is just too great." Mr Keenan claims the Algerians have used the GSPC as a way of seducing the US into the region. "Probably 90% of the Saharan population just knows that the GSPC is just a pseudonym for the Algerian security services, and there's a lot of truth in that." He says convincing the US of a terrorist threat in the Sahara has allowed the Algerians to shake off their pariah status and to obtain previously withheld military equipment from the US. US Ambassador Richard Roth in Dakar, Senegal, said the US and Algeria have been co-operating on economic, military and intelligence issues for many years. "I don't see it as an opportunistic attempt by the Algerians to use the world focus on terrorism as a means of strengthening that relationship," he said. Two years ago, another incident occurred linked to the GSPC. It was the first time they emerged as a terrorist group in the Sahara. Thirty-two European tourists were kidnapped in the Algerian desert and held for several months. The Algerians helped secure their release, both by negotiation and by force. But these two so-called terrorist incidents - the tourist kidnapping and the attack on the Mauritanian army base - have been called into question. And yet these are the two single most important pieces of evidence put forward by the US to justify the Flintlock exercise. Mohamed Fall Ould Oumere, editor of La Tribune, one of Mauritania's leading independent newspapers, says the GSPC has never attacked Mauritanian interests. "Why? Because Mauritania is a refuge for its members," he says. Moussa Ould Ham, editor of Le Calame, another independent paper, is convinced a new strand of the GSPC, not focussed on regime change in Algeria, carried out the attack. "Wherever the Americans are, whether it's Iraq or wherever, an Islamic resistance rises up, and perhaps it's this Islamic resistance that we are seeing appearing in Mauritania today."
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3:11 PM Jul 13