The United States is examining how Algeria
overcame a decade-long war with Islamic insurgents.
U.S. officials and analysts agreed that Algeria has largely defeated the
Islamic insurgency, which has drawn support from Al Qaida. They said Algeria
has employed brute force, relentless military operations, psychological
warfare as well as incentives to weaken, divide and demoralize the
insurgency movement.
Still, Algeria has failed to eliminate the Islamic insurgency. Over the
weekend, at least 10 people were killed in attacks by the Salafist Brigade
for Combat and Call in the mountains west of Algiers, Middle East Newsline reported. On Monday, an Algerian
daily reported that Algerian troops captured 24 Islamic insurgents and
surrounded another 20 near Algiers.
"The U.S. is stepping-up its relationship with the Algerian government,
largely through counter-terrorism cooperation," Rep. Ed Royce, chairman of
the House Subcommittee on International Terrorism and Nonproliferation,
said. "U.S. officials have said that there are lessons to be learned from
Algeria's struggle with terrorism."
Royce discussed U.S. cooperation with Algerian officials during his
visit to Algeria in January 2005. Congressional leaders have supported plans
by the Bush administration to increase defense and security cooperation with
Algeria to facilitate the war against Al Qaida. In 2004, the administration
approved the export of several unidentified non-lethal military systems to
Algeria.
U.S. officials said Al Qaida has used the Salafist Brigade as a leading
subcontractor for Islamic insurgency campaigns in Europe and the Middle
East. Algerians were said to comprise the third largest nationality in Al
Qaida, behind Saudis and Yemenis.
"It [Algeria] is one of America's closest allies in a region where
America desperately needs help," Lorenzo Vidino, a researcher at the
Washington-based Investigative Project, said. "Algeria's 15 year experience
in fighting Islamic radicals can help the United States."
Vidino told the House terrorism subcommittee on March 3 that Algeria has
improved security since 2000 and weakened its two leading insurgency groups,
the Salafist Brigade and the Armed Islamic Group. He said Congress should
regard the Salafist Brigade as a leading enemy of the United States.
The Salafist Brigade, Vidino said, has close links to Al Qaida and tried
to blow up Los Angeles International Airport in 2000. He said the group has
cells in Afghanistan, Britain and Canada.
"While it is important to confront forces that advocate the use of
violence with determination, it is also necessary to diplomatically engage
and try to co-opt more moderate forces," Vidino said.
Harlan Ullman, a researcher at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies, said the Algerian model could enable U.S. authorities
to recognize how a political platform could cloak a terrorist agenda. He
said Algeria has succeeded in identifying the enemy and determining its
agenda.
"The danger is a political movement, cloaked in a perverted and
radicalized version of Islam, bent on establishing a regime or regimes in
the greater Middle East controlling Saudi and probably Iraqi oil and
Pakistani nuclear weapons," Ullman said.
Ullman maintained that U.S. authorities have failed to fully understand
the Islamic threat. He cited critics who often accuse counter-terrorist
experts of exaggerating the Al Qaida threat.
"The current state of American governance is not up to the task of
keeping the nation safe," Ullman said.
The House panel also heard testimony of human rights abuses in Algeria's
war against the Islamic insurgency. Tom Malinowski, the Washington advocacy
director of Human Rights Watch, said Algerian security forces engaged in
mass arrests, abductions and executions.
At least 150,000 people have been killed since the eruption of the
Islamic insurgency in 1992. The insurgency was said to have stemmed from the
cancellation of national elections, which Islamic candidates were projected
to win.
"It is precisely in societies where ordinary people have no peaceful
avenues for expressing their grievances that violent movements tend to
thrive," Malinowski said. "And when people in such societies associate the
United States with the governments that abuse their rights, this helps
terrorist groups like Al Qaida to paint America as the enemy. Algeria is in
many ways a model of how not to fight terrorism."
