December 21, 2007: Ten days ago, two al Qaeda suicide truck
bombs exploded outside local United Nations headquarters. Al Qaeda claimed this
was a blow against the international enemies of Islam. The attack killed 37,
including 17 UN employees, and wounded over a hundred. Most of the casualties
were Algerians, and this attack increased popular hatred of Islamic terrorism
still more. To make matters worse, the two men driving the trucks were members
of Islamic terrorist organizations who had recently been freed from prison under the amnesty. They had promised to
give up their terrorist ways, and one of them was a 63 year old man dying of
cancer.
Al Qaeda hopes to get an Iraq style
terror campaign going in Algeria, which will cause the population to rise up in
rebellion. This is absurd, but that's what the al Qaeda leadership proclaim as
their goals. The reality is that most Algerians are hostile to Islamic
terrorism, after over a decade of it and more than 150,000 people killed. This
hostility translates into many civilians willing to tip off the police when
they see, or suspect, al Qaeda activity. This has led to ten al Qaeda leaders
being killed or caught in the last few months. Every week there are al Qaeda
members caught, usually because of a tip from civilians. That typically results
in some terrorists fighting to the death, a few being captured (along with
weapons and documents) every week. Many of the current terrorists in Algeria
are those who were recently released under the amnesty. There have been very
few attacks, but lots of threats.
Algeria's problem is that, despite the
general hatred of Islamic terrorism, the country is still run by a corrupt
dictatorship that mismanages the economy and generally screws up. This is typical
in the Arab world, and no one has come up with a workable solution yet. Islamic
radicalism is the latest idea to be tried, and fail. Despite that, proponents
of this approach will be around for a while. Unlike the previous crew (socialist
nationalists), whose few remaining supporters just talk and write, Islamic
terrorists must terrorize until they die, or lose interest completely. Many
have done that, but some of those who fled to Europe have remained committed to
mass murder in the name of God. Thus in the last week, French police arrested
several more Algerians on terrorism charges. The French like to let these guys
run free, so that the names of more pro-terrorist Algerian migrants can be
obtained. But it was believed that the exiles were part of an active support
network for the attacks in Algeria, and this needed to be stopped.
Al Qaeda is using the Internet and willing
Arab media (like al Jazeera) to get their message in front of young (late teen,
early 20s) Moslem men (especially students) who are the most likely new
recruits. Students are particularly susceptible, because they are facing
unemployment after they graduate, and their education has made them aware of
why this is so. While many such men seek to emigrate to the West, or oil rich
Arab countries that need foreigners to do the work, others seek an easier, and
more futile, solution. Nothing new here. Even Europe went through a spate of it
in the 60s and 70s, with young Europeans killing people and blowing things up.
Makes great headlines, but accomplishes nothing.
