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52. Al-Qaeda in North Africa: Local and Global Jihad
- Author:
- Jake Lipton
- Publication Date:
- 04-2007
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
- Abstract:
- On April 14, suicide bombers unsuccessfully targeted the U.S. consulate and an American cultural center in Casablanca, four days after another group of bombers blew themselves up in a confrontation with city police. On April 11, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (formerly the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, or GSPC) claimed responsibility for two suicide car bombings in Algiers, one targeting the prime minister's office and the other a police station. No group has claimed responsibility for the Moroccan incidents, but together with the Algerian attacks -- which killed 33 and wounded up to 330 -- they indicate that both northwestern Africa and the United States face an acute threat from established regional militant groups allied with international terrorist networks.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Security, and Terrorism
- Political Geography:
- North Africa
53. Favourable Situations for the Jihadist Recruitment. The Neighborhood of Principe Alfonso (Ceuta, Spain)
- Author:
- Javier Jordán and Humberto Trujillo
- Publication Date:
- 10-2006
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Athena Intelligence Journal
- Institution:
- Athena Intelligence
- Abstract:
- The Spanish mass media have transmitted during the past weeks various news concerning the presence of jihadist activities in the cities of Ceuta and Melilla (two enclaves of Spain in North Africa): including the detention of suspected jihadists implicated in the terrorist attack of Casablanca in May 2003; the expulsion from the Spanish Army of three members belonging to professional troops for their supposed sympathy with radical Islam; and the appearance of a declaration on a internet forum from a group called Nadim al-Magrebi, calling for jihad against Spain and demanding expressively for the 'liberation' of both cities through terrorist attacks.
- Topic:
- Security, Civil Society, and Terrorism
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Spain, and North Africa
54. After London: Reassessing Africa's Role in the War on Terror
- Author:
- Kurt Shillinger
- Publication Date:
- 09-2005
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
- Abstract:
- Whether our current war is “on terrorism” or “against violent extremism,” it is unquestionably global. While centered in the greater Middle East, the fighting occurs from North America to Southeast Asia. One of the key theaters in this struggle is Africa—not just the Arab lands of North Africa, but much of the rest of the continent. No U.S. strategy for this war that fails to reckon with Africa's role can be truly successful. The Bush administration and its allies are coming to realize this but have yet to address the full implications of the problem.
- Topic:
- Terrorism
- Political Geography:
- Africa, United Kingdom, Europe, Middle East, Arabia, North Africa, North America, and Southeast Asia
55. Al-Qaeda's North African Franchise: The GSPC Regional Threat
- Author:
- Emily Hunt
- Publication Date:
- 09-2005
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
- Abstract:
- On September 29, Algerians will vote on President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's proposed Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation, a policy that would provide amnesty for most of the one-thousand Islamic terrorists the government believes are still hiding in Algeria and neighboring countries. Between three hundred and five hundred of the terrorists still at large belong to the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). This cadre of Afghanistan-trained, al-Qaeda-linked militants was behind the September 24 ambush of a police patrol east of Algiers that killed eight people. These holdouts have shown no interest in a government amnesty, despite the Algerian population's clearly waning interest in Islamist-inspired political violence.
- Topic:
- Security, Peace Studies, and Terrorism
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan, United States, Iraq, and North Africa
56. The Military Coup in Mauritania: Domestic and International Implications
- Author:
- Daniel Zisenwine
- Publication Date:
- 08-2005
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
- Abstract:
- The August 3 bloodless military coup in Mauritania that removed president Maaouiya Ould Taya from power took place in one of the world's most impoverished nations, situated on Africa's northwest coast between Arab North Africa and black sub-Saharan Africa. The coup had all the familiar trappings of an African military overthrow of a corrupt and detested civilian regime. Mauritania has supported the American-led war on terror and actively supports Washington's counterterrorist and training operations in the trans-Sahara region. It is also among only three Arab League members (along with Egypt and Jordan) that maintain full diplomatic relations with Israel. As Mauritania's new leaders seek to stabilize their authority, they are likely to come under considerable pressure from local opposition forces opposed to existing pro-American policies and its links with Israel.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, International Relations, Government, Terrorism, and War
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Washington, and North Africa
57. Islamism in North Africa II: Egypt's Opportunity
- Publication Date:
- 04-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- Important changes in the outlook of Egyptian Islamic activism in recent years have opened up possibilities for progressive political development, but these have gone unexploited because of the conservatism of the Egyptian government's policies. The absence of serious violence since late 1997 strongly suggests that the strategy of armed struggle (jihad) against the state has not only failed but has effectively been abandoned. At the same time, the ideology of non-violent Islamic activism has evolved and now emphatically embraces democratic principles and elements of a modernist outlook. However, unless the Egyptian government changes its approach, opens up the political field and undertakes serious political reform, the frustration which many Egyptians feel could lead to a recrudescence of violent activism at some stage. The government risks realising too late that it has squandered a vital opportunity and wasted the fruits of its own earlier successes on the security front.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Politics, Religion, and Terrorism
- Political Geography:
- Africa, North Africa, and Egypt
58. Islamism in North Africa I: The Legacies of History
- Publication Date:
- 04-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- Islamism, terrorism, reform: the triangle formed by these three concepts and the complex and changeable realities to which they refer is at the centre of political debate in and about North Africa today. The role of Egyptian elements in the leadership of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organisation is well-known, if not necessarily well understood. The involvement of Maghrebis in terrorist networks in Europe -- whether linked to al-Qaeda or not -- has recently been underlined by the suspected involvement of Moroccans in the 11 March 2004 attack in Madrid. Egypt itself has endured years of terrorist violence; few if any countries have suffered as much from terrorism as Algeria has over the last twelve years; and the bombings in Casablanca on 16 May 2003 suggest that Morocco is not immune.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Politics, Religion, and Terrorism
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Europe, Algeria, North Africa, Egypt, and Morocco
59. Somalia: Countering Terrorism in a Failed State
- Publication Date:
- 05-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- For the first time since the last UN mission left the country in 1995, there is considerable international interest in Somalia, centred on the possibility that the country may become part of the global war against terrorism. The U.S. government suspects that al-Qaeda may have used Somalia as a staging area or safe haven in the past and remains concerned – though less than in the immediate aftermath of the 11 September 2001 attacks – that it could do so again because of the country's highly fragmented internal security situation.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, International Cooperation, Terrorism, and Treaties and Agreements
- Political Geography:
- United States, United Nations, North Africa, and Somalia
60. Libya's Confident Defiance and ILSA
- Author:
- Ray Takeyh
- Publication Date:
- 08-2001
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
- Abstract:
- The arraignment Friday of Brian Regan, an employee of the National Reconnaissance Office, on charges of espionage for Libya, once more places Colonel Mu'ammar Qaddafi's domain on the front pages. The secrets sold to Libya may have included information about American satellite over-flights which have in the past been able to provide early warnings about Libyan construction of facilities designed to produce or test weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and missiles. In the last two years, Libya's acquisition of missile technology and its pursuit of chemical weapons have raised alarms. The espionage episode comes at a particularly inopportune time, as the CIA's most recent assessment concludes, "Tripoli has not given up its goal of establishing its own offensive [chemical weapon] program."
- Topic:
- Security, NATO, Arms Control and Proliferation, Religion, Terrorism, and Weapons of Mass Destruction
- Political Geography:
- Libya and North Africa