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| Africa: North |
| The US battles al-Qaeda in North Africa |
| 2004-09-17 |
| It's a sweltering morning in Chad's scrub-brush desert. A herd of goats grazes on tufts of green. Round huts bake in the strengthening sun. Suddenly the goats scatter as gunfire fills the air. Chadian soldiers behind a row of machine guns unload on their target: a giant berm standing in for Al Qaeda. Villagers turn as a batallion of Chadian Army troops swoops in from the right. The thap-thap of their AK-47s joins the chorus as shots pound the dirt mound. And 23 US Marines look on. For six weeks they've been teaching 168 Chadian soldiers counterterrorism basics - surprise attacks, border patrolling, intelligence gathering, and more. This is the final exam. "Lookin' good," says Maj. Paul Baker, the mission commander. The training here in remote Chad is just one sign of how the US military is engaging Africa in the global terror war as never before. There are, for instance, joint US naval exercises with Nigeria this month. There are reported antiterror patrols along the Kenya-Somalia border. And there's the new expansion of the Chad program from a four-nation, $7 million project to a nine-country plan with an expected budget of up to $125 million. It aims to prevent terrorists from roaming in and around the Sahara desert. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #7 With greater American activity, there’s a danger [Muslim groups will] "become more extreme," warns Anneli Botha, a senior terrorism researcher at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, South Africa. It's so much better when they do quiet things, like forging S. African passports... |
| Posted by: Pappy 2004-09-17 6:47:27 PM |
| #6 "We’re "looking at Africa as a place of growth for the Marine Corps and the Department of Defense . . ." That's a good thing, considering the Islamics want to make Africa an "Islamic Continent." "But in the Chadian sunshine, soldier Abakar Ibrahim clearly shows how US training has instilled pride and antiterror resolve. We’re sharpshooters now," he says, keeping his finger off the trigger of his AK-47, just as the marines taught him to do. "Terrorists are the enemy for all the world. We can help America fight them." US troops instilling pride and antiterror resolve . . . what's the world coming to. |
| Posted by: ex-lib 2004-09-17 6:21:36 PM |
| #5 I am glad to see that the US sees the threat and puts resources on the ground to help the area residents protect themselves. The more that they can do themselves, the more they will grow socially and politically, and the stronger they will be in resisting this terrorist cancer. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-09-17 1:50:43 PM |
| #4 :-) |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-09-17 1:46:33 PM |
| #3 I disagree |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-09-17 1:45:21 PM |
| #2 That's hard to argue with.... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2004-09-17 1:27:06 PM |
| #1 .. |
| Posted by: Anonymous6524 2004-09-17 1:25:22 PM |