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THE
ROVING EYE
The Algerian
connection
By Pepe Escobar
BRUSSELS - No one is safe: Iraq is hell
even for Sunni Arab diplomats. On July 21, the
head of the Algerian mission, Ali Belaroussi, who
had been stationed in Iraq for two years, and
diplomat Azzedine Belkadi were kidnapped in the
Mansour neighborhood in Baghdad at gunpoint. This
Wednesday, al-Qaeda in the Land of the Two Rivers
claimed on an Islamic website that the captives
had been executed because their government "is
ruling in violation of God's will".
What
does this really mean? In 2003, President
Abdulaziz Bouteflika's government forcefully
condemned the United States' "dirty war". The
Algerians were officially in favor of an end of
the occupation and "the control by the Iraqi
people of its natural resources".
But this
is not enough to spare Algeria from al-Qaeda's
terror. The reason: the US military presence in
northern Africa, and its military aid to Algeria.
In June, for example, under the
supervision of the American command in Europe
(EUCOM), joint military exercises took place
across five Saharan states, including Mauritania
and Algeria. According to Middle East Online, the
exercises - known as Operation Flintlock 2005 -
included training in general marksmanship,
orienteering and communications. More than 800 US
troops took part. This was the first step in a
broader five-year, US$500 million US plan to
improve the capacities of African militaries in
the context of Washington's "war against terror".
Subsequently, commanders from Mauritania,
Mali, Niger and Algeria met with their US
counterparts in the Mauritanian capital of
Nouakchott in mid-July for a strategic planning
session, which news reports said could lead to a
regional headquarters for the Saharan anti-terror
fight.
In addition, the US has already
secretly established a "huge military surveillance
base" in the Algerian city of Tamanrassat,
according to George al-Rassi, a retired Sorbonne
professor and an expert in North African affairs,
in an interview in June 2004 with the
Lebanon-based Daily Star. Neither Algeria nor
Washington acknowledges this base, although there
were reports last year that discussions on its
establishment were under way .
In January
2002, Algeria began hosting US naval ships and the
two countries have conducted joint anti-submarine
warfare maneuvers. In December of the same year,
Washington announced it would abandon its
10-year-old arms embargo on Algeria.
Last
year, then-US assistant secretary of state William
Burns said the Bush administration had provided
Algeria with $700,000 for the year for military
equipment and training of security forces. The
request for 2006 is $750,000 - an increase of more
than 1,000% in four years.
According to
the World Policy Institute, "All signs point
towards more military aid in the future. As the
State Department explains in its Congressional
Presentation, Algeria 'has demonstrated it is an
important partner in the global war against
terrorism; it remains in the US interest to help
the Algerian military increase its
professionalism, effectiveness and improve its
interoperability with the US and other allied
forces. The threat of terrorism from internal
Algerian extremist groups and those with ties to
international terrorist organizations continues to
plague Algeria and threaten US interests in the
region'."
The institute added, however,
that, "Despite this warming trend, Algerian access
to US weaponry remains limited. All US weapons
transfers are decided on a case-by-case basis. In
recent years, only non-lethal systems, such as
radios, global positioning systems, night vision
equipment and sensors have been transferred."
Rear Admiral Hamlin Tallent of EUCOM has
warned that "creeping advances" by Algeria's
hardline Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat
into neighboring countries poses the greatest
security threat to northwest Africa.
Borders in northern Africa are extremely
porous or non-existent, in the middle of the
desert, and the US clearly fears the jihadi agenda
may be seductive for the poor and downtrodden
living in the impoverished, mostly Muslim
countries, some ruled by corrupt elites, of the
region. These countries include Algeria,
Mauritania, Mali, Senegal, Chad, Niger and
Nigeria.
As far as al-Qaeda is concerned,
the meaning of "in violation of God's will" is the
fact that a Muslim country collaborates with the
US military - not to mention the military aid
delivered by Washington to Algeria.
EU
counter-terrorism analysts, faced with the
execution of the two diplomats in Iraq, are now
adding Algeria to a long list that includes Egypt,
Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Emirates -
regimes that the al-Qaeda nebula is set on
destabilizing.
(Copyright 2005 Asia Times
Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us
for information on sales, syndication and republishing.) |
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