U.S. counterterror authorities watching al-Qaida's new African alliance

By: KATHERINE SHRADER - Associated Press | Saturday, June 9, 2007 6:45 PM PDT ∞

WASHINGTON -- U.S. counterterrorism officials are paying renewed

attention to an increasingly dangerous incubator for extremism: a swath of

northern and sub-Saharan West Africa, from the Atlantic coast of Morocco

and Mauritania to the harsh deserts of Chad.

The centerpiece of terrorism problems in the region is Algeria's Salafist

Group for Preaching and Combat, better known by its French initials GSPC.

Late last year, it joined forces with Osama bin Laden and renamed itself

al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, an Arabic term used to refer to North

Africa.

"The threat from al-Qaida's presence in the region is significant, very

dangerous and potentially growing in a couple of cases," Assistant

Secretary of State David Welch told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on

Wednesday.

In interviews, senior government officials go even further as they talk

about recent developments in the impoverished region of North Africa, the

Sahara, and the grasslands to the south known as the Sahel. The vast area

has the potential to become more volatile, said three senior officials,

who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of their

positions.

One senior U.S. intelligence official said the new al-Qaida-focused GSPC

is more dangerous than its predecessor because its links to bin Laden

boosted morale and its new focus on government buildings and suicide

attacks is a shift in targeting.

"We should be worried about it. It hasn't really blossomed yet," the

official said.

While the group probably could not attack the U.S. homeland yet, the

official said, it could attack U.S. targets in North Africa such as

embassies, tourists and people on business.

The U.S. focus on the group comes as the Bush administration finalizes

plans to create a new military command in Africa, called AFRICOM. The

continent now falls under the direction of three different military

commands.

Officials from the Defense and State departments toured six Africa

countries in April, trying to ease concerns about feared increases in U.S.

troops and resources. Pentagon officials say the new command does not mean

a dramatic boost in either.

A recent Congressional Research Service report found that the command

raises questions for Congress, including how to ensure that military

activities do not overshadow U.S. diplomatic efforts.

The report said the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International

Development worry the Pentagon may overstep its mandate, as well as

overestimate its capabilities and its diplomatic role.

The State Department has for some time taken the lead in northwestern

Africa. In June 2005, largely out of concern about the GSPC, it began a

program to build cooperation with countries in the region. "The Sahara is

very much a no-man's-land where they can hang out and procure weapons and

training," one official said.

U.S. officials say GPSC support cells have been dismantled in Spain,

Italy, Morocco, and Mali, and the group maintains training camps across

the Sahel grasslands.

After linking up with al-Qaida, the group carried out a suicide bombing in

Algiers last month targeting a high-profile Government Palace and a police

station. Thirty-three people died in the first suicide attacks in Algeria

in a decade. The group has promised to target non-Muslim foreigners who it

deems to have exploited Muslim lands -- specifically diplomats, business

people and tourists in North Africa.

Like al-Qaida, the group produces videos, a digital magazine and books,

according to IntelCenter, the U.S. government contractor that monitors the

material. Just this past week it distributed a new video showing its

members and operations.

U.S. government officials note the Algerian government was successful at

containing Islamic insurgents during the 1990s. But tens of thousands died

in the violence.

Analysts do not yet consider North and Western Africa a safe haven for

terrorists in the way Afghanistan was under Taliban rule.

In a recent examination of current and future safe havens, not discussed

publicly before, counterterrorism officials concluded that al-Qaida's main

organization does not have many options outside of the Afghan-Pakistani

border region. It is unlikely to lose that base soon, the senior U.S.

intelligence official said.

But the official said authorities have looked at the pros and cons of

different areas of the world as terrorist havens, including the ungoverned

areas of the Sahel.

While the region lacks population, accessibility and hospitable living

conditions, officials said the area still makes sense as an al-Qaida

location in the Islamic Maghreb because of its porous borders, lax

government oversight, poverty and political unrest.

Officials say such concerns are complicated by other factors, including:

--Money from Persian Gulf and Middle East. U.S. officials say private

Saudi donors have funneled money to Sunni Muslim schools and mosques in

the region. But one intelligence official noted much of the money is

intended to counter the influence of Iran, which also funds Shiite

interests in the region.

--A sizable population of potentially impressionable young people. West

Africa is roughly half Muslim, with higher concentrations in the Sahel.

With its extensive links to the Middle East, the region is fertile ground

for radical ideas.

--Areas of instability. Morocco and Algerian-backed Polisario Front rebels

have disputed desert lands of the largely Muslim Western Sahara for

decades, forcing 100,000 people into refugee camps in Algeria. In Nigeria,

which has a large Muslim population in the north, elections last month

have been largely discredited. The issue has been overlooked greatly, even

though the country is Africa's largest oil producer and is on the brink of

becoming a failed state, especially in its southern Delta region, the

official added.

This official noted that the terrorism problem shows up differently in

North and Western Africa in comparison with other parts of the world.

In the Sahel, for instance, extremists are not always the poorest of the

poor, but rather -- as is the case in northern Nigeria -- educated young

people, the official said.

Rep. Jane Harman, who as a member of the House Homeland Security Committee

has traveled often to Africa, said she once thought North Africa was a

fragile place from which extremists could threaten Europe. Harman,

D-Calif., said she now thinks it could be a staging ground for attacks

worldwide.

For years, she said, Africa got too little attention. "I think we have

underestimated the capabilities of al-Qaida to get a beachhead there,"

Harman said.

On the Net:

David Welch's testimony to the House Foreign Affairs Committee:

http://tinyurl.com/3572dk

State Department's country reports on terrorism: http://tinyurl.com/38xs29

State Department background on Middle East and North Africa:

http://usinfo.state.gov/mena/

State Department background on Africa: http://usinfo.state.gov/af/

CIA World Factbook: http://tinyurl.com/2b2kg9

Background on Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat:

http://tinyurl.com/2rg9gc

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