Home |
Site Index |
FAQs |
Contact |
RSS
|
Podcast
home > by publication type > daily analysis > Stalking Terrorists in Africa’s Horn
Email
| Prepared by: |
|---|
A Somali girl walks past the remains of a car bomb. Violence in the country is at its highest levels in more than a decade. (AP/Jerome Delay)
When President Bush proclaims that his counterterrorism strategy consists of “taking the fight to the enemy,” it conjures up images of U.S. forces patrolling the streets of Baghdad or the mountains of Afghanistan. But increasingly this battlefield includes the Horn of Africa, where U.S. counterterrorism efforts have noticeably picked up, raising charges of heavy-handed activities along the way.
The most notable front is Somalia, where U.S. forces aided Ethiopian and Somali troops in the fight against Somalia’s powerful Islamist militias, launching air strikes at suspected al-Qaeda militants in January. Months earlier, before hard-line Islamists seized control of much of the country, U.S. agents attempted to thwart them by providing support to a band of warlords who called themselves the “Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism.” The alliance soon folded, but the Islamists were eventually routed by the Ethiopians, leaving a weak transitional government incapable of asserting control. Somalia has recently witnessed some of the worst fighting (CSMonitor) in sixteen years of anarchy, with rival clans, Ethiopian troops, and Somali forces trading offensives. A White House report to Congress in late March said Somalia remains a major security concern (AP) and the United States will continue to “take strong measures to deny terrorists safe haven within Somalia.”
Writing recently in Foreign Affairs, John Prendergast and Colin Thomas-Jensen of the International Crisis Group argue that Washington’s single-minded focus on combating terrorism in the Greater Horn of Africa “is overshadowing U.S. initiatives to resolve conflicts and promote good governance—with disastrous implications for regional stability and U.S. counterterrorism objectives themselves.” One case in point: As a result of Ethiopia’s assistance in Somalia, Bush administration officials looked the other way as Addis Ababa bought weapons from North Korea in January, despite UN sanctions (NYT).
Also potentially damaging to Washington’s image in the region is a new report by the Associated Press that U.S. intelligence officials are interrogating suspected terrorists in secret Ethiopian prisons. According to the report, which Ethiopia denies (VOA), most of the suspects were rounded up in January as they fled the Ethiopian offensive that drove out Somalia’s Islamists. A Human Rights Watch report lambastes the United States, Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia for operating a secret detention program, which one spokesman described as an “outsourced Guantanamo.” U.S. officials have hesitated to discuss these allegations, though a CIA representative told Reuters any U.S. actions have been lawful.
Given Somalia’s present state of chaos (ISN), some observers believe the United States should do more. Counterterrorism consultant Daveed Gartenstein-Ross bemoans a lack of U.S. action as Somali violence worsens. But Africa as a whole is very much on the radar of U.S. strategic planners in the Defense Department; it recently announced it will create an African Command by 2008. This prospect worries Michael Scheuer, a retired CIA officer who in the late 1990s led the unit responsible for tracking Osama bin Laden. He tells CFR.org, “Our presence alone in some of those countries will increase the militancy of Muslims.”
Of course, concerns over terrorism stretch beyond Africa’s Horn. Terrorism appears resurgent in Algeria, where one prominent insurgent group recently renamed itself al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. As this Backgrounder explains, the group has helped provide a steady stream of foreign fighters to help support insurgents in Iraq. The New York Times reports that North Africans are among the cadre of new leaders helping to revitalize the al-Qaeda organization. A recent Council Special Report on the Horn of Africa calls for increased aid and a heightened military presence in the region. A Council Task Force report suggests a more comprehensive U.S. policy toward the continent.
Weigh in on this issue by emailing CFR.org.
In Termites in the Trading System, Jagdish Bhagwati reveals how the rapid spread of preferential trade agreements endangers the world trading system.
America Between the Wars explores how the decisions and debates of the years between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Twin Towers shaped the events, arguments, and politics of the world we live in today.
In The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State, Noah Feldman tells the story behind the increasingly popular call for the establishment of the sharia—the law of the traditional Islamic state—in the modern Muslim world.
Complete list of CFR Books.
This report argues that the United States must lead with domestic action on climate change and proposes a U.S. negotiating strategy for a global UN climate agreement that includes commitments from all major economies, while also promoting a less formal Partnership for Climate Cooperation that would focus the world's largest emitters on implementing aggressive emissions reductions.
This Task Force report examines changes in Latin America and in U.S. influence there, while taking account of the region's enduring importance to the United States. The Task Force offers an agenda for U.S. policy toward Latin America and identifies four critical areas that should provide the basis of a new U.S. approach.
About Independent Task Forces at the Council.
After two decades of liberalization, many countries around the world are adopting new restrictions on foreign direct investment (FDI) that could retard continued progress. The authors make recommendations for correcting this protectionist drift by proposing guidelines for how countries can better regulate FDI yet still reap its economic benefits.
In this Council Special Report, the authors make a strong case that the Bush administration’s policy of diplomatic isolation of Syria is not serving U.S. interests, and offer informed history and thoughtful analysis of the country and its external behavior.
Complete list of Council Special Reports.
To order Task Force reports, Council Special Reports, and Critical Policy Choices, please call, fax, or order online from our distributor, the Brookings Institution Press: phone +1-800-537-5487, fax +1-410-516-6998.
For information on other reports that are not for sale, or for general publications information, please call +1-212-434-9516 or email publications@cfr.org.
To request permission to reuse Council materials, please email publications@cfr.org or fax +1-212-434-9859.
Please include the complete information of the requested work—author, title, sections/pages to be copied or reprinted, and number of copies to be made—along with a brief description of where and how you would like to reuse the work.
You may also request permission for Council material through Copyright Clearance Center. For more information, please click on the logo below.
Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.
