While the White House and the American public focus on the battle
against the Taliban in Afghanistan, a far more basic and
immediate threat to American and European security continues to
exist on the covert level of radical Islamic terrorism. One group
that remains generally off the radar screen of the public, the
press and — most importantly — the Obama Administration is the
organization known as AQIM (al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb). The
Maghreb is the Arabic term for North Africa west of Egypt.
To characterize AQIM as a “franchise” operation of al Qaeda
is to ignore the history of a terrorist mechanism whose original
leadership came of age through the same conflict in Afghanistan
as al Qaeda. The difference is that these young people were the
revolutionary heirs of Algeria’s own bloody war of independence
from colonial France.
AQIM’s specific organizational roots go back to 1992.
Elections in Algeria at that time devolved into a sanguinary
civil war as various Islamic groups fought against the
military-backed secular government.
Out of this conflagration grew the organization known as
GIA (Armed Islamic Group), of which the most extreme element
evolved as the GSPC (Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat).
The term “Salafist” draws directly on the Sunni Arab sense of
fundamentalism and a return to the early ambitions and doctrine
of Islam. In 2006 GSPC announced it had formally joined forces
with al Qaeda, even though it already had declared its allegiance
to Osama bin Laden’s organization three years earlier. By January
2007 the Salafist jihadi group changed its name to AQIM,
apparently to align itself with the broader global objectives of
al Qaeda.
The name changes are important to intelligence analysts,
who are divided in their views regarding whether the official
alignment of the Algerian organization with the internationalist
al Qaeda was an attempt to reinforce its existing status — which
was wavering — or simply to expand its thrust across North
Africa and pursue further global objectives.
What is not questioned is that North Africans of the AQIM
have returned from fighting in Iraq capable of escalating their
group’s activity in the Maghreb and Europe. According to British
sources, the AQIM has between 600-800 members led by Abdelmalik
Droukdal (aka — Abou Musab Abdelwadoud), a former college
science student and
bomb-making specialist. The actual numbers are less important
than the organization’s capability to covertly support and launch
operations within their region and Europe.
This past October, a French citizen of Algerian origin who
worked as a physicist at the European Organization for Nuclear
Research (CERN) was arrested in France on charges of “criminal
association with a terrorist enterprise.” The suggested terrorist
group was AQIM. Since the original announcement, a security
blackout has been placed on any further information regarding
this action. Apparently the press restriction was in line with
counter-terrorist operations of the French internal intelligence
agency, Direction Centrale du Renseignement Intérieur
(DCRI).
In June 2008 the Spanish internal intel service uncovered
and arrested a terrorist cell of eight men for what was
characterized as “providing logistical and financial support” to
AQIM. A similar AQIM cell had been closed down outside of Paris
by the French service a year before. Other counter-terrorism
operations against AQIM-linked agents are reported to have
occurred throughout Western Europe. Algerian expatriates living
in Europe are said to be a continuing source of funds for their
North African comrades.
Kidnapping has been another lucrative source of financing.
Having collected over $5 million in ransom in 2003 for kidnapping
a group of 32 European tourists on an Algerian Sahara trip, the
Maghreb terrorists have subsequently been motivated to capture
targets of opportunity, both civilian and diplomatic, for large
ransom payments. In some instances, however, as was the case of a
U.K. citizen in June 2009, the victim is killed.
In recent years there have been suicide attacks against
foreign business and government staff as well as Algerian
military targets, mirroring similar al Qaeda operations in Iraq.
In June 2009 a platoon of Algerian police were ambushed and
killed. Hostages are held in small villages in the Sahara across
the border in northern Mali, where the tribal leaders usually are
happy to receive AQIM subsidies.
Some counter-terrorism specialists believe AQIM is the best
situated of all the al Qaeda sub-groups to perform operations in
Western Europe. AQIM is considered to be physically and
logistically in a position to launch substantial and
well-coordinated attacks on “infidel” European and American
targets. The question continues to exist as to what priority is
being given by the American and European governments to address
this danger while official attention is focused on
Afghanistan?
