Posted on 08/10/2013 11:18:32 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
(Reuters) - Inquiries into the bloody assault on an Algerian gas plant are uncovering increasing evidence of contacts between the assailants and the jihadis involved in killing the U.S. ambassador to Libya nearly a year ago.
The extent of the contacts between the militants is still unclear and nobody is sure there was a direct link between the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and the carnage at In Amenas, where 39 foreign hostages were killed in January.
But the findings, according to three sources with separate knowledge of U.S. investigations, shed some light on the connections between Al Qaeda affiliates stretching ever further across North and West Africa.
The lack of detail, meanwhile, highlights the paucity of intelligence on jihadis whose rise has been fuelled by the 2011 Arab uprisings and who have shown ready to strike scattered Western targets including mines and energy installations.
That makes the region an even greater worry for Western countries at a time of heightened security over the threat of more al Qaeda attacks in the Middle East and North Africa.
At the center of the web is Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which has expanded far from its Algerian birthplace and now has links to other jihadi groups in Maghreb countries, including Tunisia and Libya. Their shared ideology combines with other, often financial, interests.
"Its leaders are survivors; they are opportunists," said Stephen Tankel, an Assistant Professor at American University in Washington.
"And now the environment throughout the Maghreb has become conducive to expansion as well," said Tankel, who is writing a book on how jihadis adapted after the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
EXPANSION DRIVE
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
But... but... Al Qaeda’s on the run.
fyi
Need the toon with them chasing Obama.
The problem is the the US and the West don’t take this matter seriously. The US looks at the terrorists as merely disgruntled people (children). Rather than dealing out severe punishment (I.e., fighting to win), the US just wags its finger and says “just wait until your father get’s home!”
Unless the US/West decides to annihilate these people, the problem will continue. For example, in addition to killing the terrorists (including all those captured), the US should also round up members of the terrorists families too (for severe punishment). Maybe a teenage boy will be less inclined to join al Queda if he knew his entire family would be wiped out.
It’s only a mystery to our Muslim in Chief who thought you just have to give free stuff away and people will stop bothering you.
WRONG! You give people free stuff after they misbehave, and they misbehave again so they get free stuff again.
History is being intentionally ignored by the puppet masters. Islam, over its 1300 year span has been directly responsible for deaths on the order of a hundred or so million, perhaps more, exceeding all the deaths in World War II, combatant and civilian combined. And yet the brits for example have removed holocaust references from books so as not to “offend” muslims, the planet’s most homicidal single group of people by a longshot. The brainwashing and group amnesia is stunning.
In a culture that demands honor killings, I don’t think they’d have a problem with their family being beaten/tortured/killed.
But then we would be like the savages..../s
Maybe we should find out... Just for sure!
Answer: Stop compromising with these killers and start calling it TERROR. Fight it by hitting them and drying up Saudi and other Arab support ($$) for these cesspools of education called MADrasses.
As long as the West lives in denial about Islam, there will be Jihadis on the offensive. When they see no hope of any sort of victory (like the Japanese in August 1945) then they will lay down their arms (temporarily).
I sound like Curtis LeMay but they must be destroyed, utterly or they will flood your societies and then kill you.
It’s all because we call Jihad “terrorism”.
A map of the Sahel region showing where Al Qaeda operates (AFP/Graphic)
Iran Deploys Troops, Ballistic Missiles To Eritrea
Thanks Ernest.
Iran, Sudan Race to Control West Africa
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3039374/posts
Irans Africa Fiasco [February 25, 2011]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2680453/posts
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.