War On Terror: The African Front

[David]

Iraq and Afghanistan attract all the headlines, but there is another theater of operations in the worldwide War on Terror that the American public rarely hears about. Call it a silent war, if you will, or a preventative program.

It's the U.S. program to keep Africa from becoming the next happy hunting ground for Islamic warriors. It costs relatively little, involves relatively few Americans and so far seems to be effective. In short, it is everything Iraq is not.

Africa may not be in the news, but it is important. With vast thinly populated areas, corrupt governments, loosely guarded frontiers, and especially in North Africa, a Moslem population, Africa is the ideal terrain to become the next haven for the terrorist networks inspired by Osama bin Laden and his followers.

Moroccans, Algerians, Tunisians and Egyptians have all been found in the European sleeper cells that helped carry out the September 11 attacks and subsequent terrorist operations in Europe, including the Madrid railway massacre. As Europe cracks down on militants on its own territory, Africa becomes their natural fallback position. It is ideal for recruiting, planning and training, and as a transit or jumping off point for operations in other parts of the world.

The United States began the hunt for terrorists in Africa after the 1998 bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Since then, it has developed a little known program to train and equip African armies and governments to track down terrorists on their own countries.

The French have been training African armies for years in the French-speaking parts of the continent. Now the United States is following in their footsteps with its own specifically targeted anti-terrorist training programs.

In the North, the US launched in 2003 the Pan-Sahel Initiative, which now includes Senegal, Chad, Mauritania and Mali, and may eventually be extended to Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and possibly even Libya.

The program is overseen by the State Department with a modest $125 million budget. Several hundred soldiers from the U.S. Army European Command Mobile Training Team teach Africans to patrol their frontiers, track people through ungoverned open areas, establish aviation security programs and curb militant fundraising. The U.S. is also providing basic equipment such as pickup trucks and communication systems.

In the Northeast, the Pentagon established the Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa, in 2002. A force that includes more than 1200 Marines and special operations soldiers is based in the former French colony of Djibouti, where this correspondent remembers drinking Pastis with the French Foreign Legion in a bar known as the Zinc Palm Tree, back in the days when France ruled large chunks of Africa and periodically put down native rebellions.

The American soldiers are not occupiers, but guests of the local governments and, according to the private news service Stratfor, have successfully participated in operations to root out militants. Potential attacks have been disrupted, and training objectives have been met.

None of this makes big news. In fact, America's quiet African anti-terrorist initiatives are rarely mentioned in the media. Presumably, the Pentagon and the African governments involved prefer it that way. In this case, no news is good news.