The Christian Broadcasting Network April 18, 2005
Terror on the Dark Continent: The Growth of al Qaeda
By George Thomas
CBN News Sr. Reporter
(CBN News) -- Nothing is quite what it seems in Morocco. On one hand, this moderate Islamic nation in North Africa has been a good friend of the United States. Western culture is openly embraced in many quarters of the country. On the other hand, the menace of radical Islam flourishes, prompting some to warn of Morocco's dangerous slide towards fundamentalism.
That menace was on display one year ago. Eighteen suspects, most of them Moroccan immigrants with ties to al Qaeda, allegedly carried out the deadliest terror attacks ever to hit Western Europe.
Suicide bombs struck four commuter trains in Madrid, Spain, killing 191 people and injuring 1,500. The attack was called Europe's 9-11.
Planning for that attack was reportedly done thousands of miles away from Madrid in a remote part of Morocco that is close to the borders of several other North African countries.
Steven Emerson is one of the world's foremost experts on radical Islam. He said, "I think we should be very concerned about the continued operation, cultivation, support and probably growth of al Qaeda cells in North Africa."
Veteran journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave warns, what these Africa-based al Qaeda agents have in mind, is to target the Western world as a whole and the United States in particular.
de Borchgrave said, "The ultimate objective, obviously, is as Osama bin Laden said in a recent message -- to bankrupt the United States."
But it is not just Morocco that is grappling with Islamic terrorists. Squeezed out of its sanctuary in Afghanistan, U.S. and Western intelligence believe al Qaeda and its terrorist affiliates are looking for havens in other parts of Africa, to spawn, recruit and plan future operations.
de Borchgrave remarked, "What happened after 9-11 and the invasion of Afghanistan, and in the defeat of the Taliban, the defeat of al Qaeda, the dismantling of 21 training camps - it's like giving a great big kick into a hornet's nest and the hornets scatter to different parts of the world."
Many fled to familiar Muslim outposts in Africa. There, the language of jihad is growing louder among some of the continent's 300-million Muslim faithful.
A big concern among terror-trackers is that most of the African governments have no clue just how many members of their own nationalities were trained by Osama bin Laden in the camps of Afghanistan.
Steve Pomerantz, former head of the FBI Counter-Terrorism Unit, commented, "There are, by anybody's reckoning, hundreds, if not thousands -- and some people say tens of thousands of individuals who received some training and some indoctrination, who are now unaccounted for."
African recruits already play a high-profile role in the global Islamic militancy. Twelve of the FBI's 22 most wanted terrorists in the world come from African nations.
Douglas Farah has documented al Qaeda's growing sanctuary in Africa. He said, "Africa's role as a potential hotspot, I think, is really large, because if you look at where terrorists are moving to, in it, is the large, stateless, ungoverned areas, or areas where there are rogue regimes that are essentially functioning as criminal enterprises."
Four regions on the continent are believed to be the new rearguard bases for al Qaeda and affiliated groups: the Horn of Africa, North Africa, the Pan Sahel region and West Africa.
General Charles Wald oversees most of Africa for the U.S. military's European Command. He said, "No place is safe from this activity. I mean, they'll go any place where they can operate with impunity or freedom."
CBN News asked Wald, "What is it about Africa that is so appealing to al Qaeda and other terrorist groups?"
Gen. Wald responded, "Well, I think the environment is appealing."
Consider that environment through the eyes of a terror planner. According to the United Nations, 27 of the least developed countries in the world are in Africa. Half of the 25 worst countries are also in Africa.
Poverty, weak borders, corruption, unemployment, wars and famine plague many African nations, keeping the continent in a constant state of turmoil. Plus, anti-American and anti-Israeli feelings run deep in many parts of the continent, fueled in part by a steady diet of hate by Saudi-funded mosques and schools.
All this is giving al Qaeda planners the recruitment base needed to convert waves of bitter Muslim youth into American haters.
Princeton Lyman is the former U.S. Ambassador to South Africa and Nigeria. He said, "You don't need large numbers, you need seams within populations to exploit frustrations that have been going on for a long time."
Nine-Eleven was a reminder that failed states, like Afghanistan, pose a significant threat to U.S. national security.
Africa faces a similar crisis.
John Pike tracks emerging threats to the United States. He stated, "We are on the verge of continent-wide state failure."
Pike says Africa is a graveyard of failed or failing states -- countries that either have collapsed or are on the verge of collapse. Twenty-five of the 51 countries in Africa have that dubious distinction.
This gives al Qaeda planners and other criminals the ideal environment to move men, weapons and money around the globe.
Lyman remarked, "I think what the terrorists want to do in Africa is to lay the groundwork, to have economic ties, to be able to establish terrorist cells and maybe use those cells outside Africa, as well as in."
All of which has Washington paying more attention to Africa. The U.S. military is now training armies in nine countries as part of a $125 million program aimed at fighting terrorism in Africa.
The Pentagon is also working with a number of countries to establish six or more U.S. military bases at airports or remote camps in Africa.
Two-hundred-man units will command these bases, allowing U.S. troops fast access to trouble spots.
Gen. Wald said, "So we have to get into that environment and take away that environment."
There is no doubt that Osama bin Laden's network of terror has suffered significant setbacks in the last three years of the global war against terrorism. Three-quarters of al Qaeda's key members and associates before 9-11 have been captured or killed.
That is the good news. The bad news is that the network is by no means out of business.
de Borchgrave remarked, "It is a beast and it is wounded, but it has licked its wounds and gone on to other pastures."
Pastures that today zigzag across Africa and around the world, revealing the true stretch of al Qaeda's deadly tentacles.
© Copyright 2005, The Christian Broadcasting Network
