feature article

March 2007

U.S. military seeks to quash terrorism before it takes root

By Stew Magnuson

BAMAKO, Mali — The assault began with two-minutes of .50-caliber machine gun fire from a ridge overlooking a mock terrorist training camp.

After the gun’s ammunition was spent, a flare went up signaling the beginning of the attack. Troopers from Mali’s 33rd parachute regiment emerged from a line of scrub brush — one line moving up while a second provided suppressive fire.

A few paces behind the line, a U.S. special operations A-team based in Stuttgart, Germany, moved in unison to observe their progress.

The paratroopers riddled the target — a flimsy shack and a couple beat-up cars — with AK-47 bullets. Within minutes, the Malians rushed through the camp and set up a 360-degree perimeter. Special teams went through the motions of tending to the wounded, capturing prisoners and searching for intelligence.

The training was part of a State Department program, the Trans-Saharan Counter Terrorism Initiative, a $100-million-per-year effort U.S. officials hope will prevent this region from being used by, or falling under the influence of, radical Islam. The intent is to train African forces so they can root out terrorists. U.S. European Command has spearheaded the military training component.

“This is the most realistic training we’ve ever received,” said Col. I. Ould Issa, commander of the regiment.

It was a busy day on the African continent. At that moment, EUCOM personnel were in neighboring Niger carrying out similar training programs. Sudanese Jingaweit forces continued their attacks against minorities in Darfur, sending more refugees spilling into neighboring Chad. Nigerian rebels in the petroleum-rich delta region continued their campaign against the government by kidnapping oil workers. Ethiopian leaders, with the tacit approval of the United States, were contemplating an attack on the Islamic Courts movement in Somalia. Six weeks later, they would do so, and U.S. air strikes would follow.

As all this unfolded, President Bush received a document from the Pentagon asking that a new regional command be formed for Africa, which was divided from north to south between EUCOM and U.S. Central Command. In February, the president made it a reality.

Senior EUCOM leaders, including the commander, Army Gen. Bantz Craddock and his deputy commander Army Gen. William Ward, were vocal about their support of a unified command. The complexities of the continent require the undivided attention of a single command, they said.

While humanitarian relief and peacekeeping operations are potential missions for the unified command, preventing the rise of religious extremists, or rogue nations that could harbor terrorists, will be a primary goal.

The TSCTI has its roots in the Pan-Sahel Initiative, a counter-terrorism training program carried out in Chad, Mali, Niger and Mauritania – all countries with large Muslim populations. Congress renamed the initiative, gave it an $84-million-per-year funding boost and asked the State Department to expand the programs. Senegal, Algeria, Tunisia, Nigeria and Morocco were added. CENTCOM has a similar initiative in East Africa.

The program in Mali points to the complexities of dealing with Africa and its 54 nations. Although considered one of the most stable democracies in the region, the landlocked country has a restive north and an Algeria-based terrorist organization, the Groupe Salafiste pour la Predication et le Combat, or the Salafi Group for Preaching and Combat, which regularly encroaches on its territory. How many fighters the GSPC has in Mali, and whether it could radicalize the local populations, is a matter of some controversy.

Meanwhile, Malian military officials, short of funds and lacking in high-tech military gear, will take all the help they can get.

The training is important, said Col. Youssouf Goita, director of military security in the Ministry of Defense and Veterans Affairs.

“But we need global positioning systems, sensors like infrared and night vision technology,” he said as he sipped coffee in his office in central Bamako.

Congress, when providing guidance on the program, asked EUCOM to train rapid reaction forces within the participating nations. But questions remain on how rapid a force can be when it doesn’t have a way to move troops.

The Malian army needs transportation — both air and ground, Goita said.

The vast and desolate north where the GSPC operates is the size of France. This is the heart of the Sahara desert where rolling sand dunes stretch for thousands of square kilometers.

“We need airplanes to move troops north quickly,” said Malian Army spokesman Col. Abdoulaye Coulibaly. “We need all terrain vehicles and Land Cruisers. We have some vehicles for this, but not too many,” he said.

The civilian government has identified education, agriculture and health as its top spending priorities. “The Army comes last,” he said.

A Western military attaché told National Defense the Malian air force has about 12 Russian-made MiG-21s, but only six work at any given time. It has some tanks and armored personnel carriers, but they aren’t practical when taking on guerillas.

The most recent major purchase the government made for the military was a BT-67, manufactured by Basler Turbo Conversions, LLC, of Oshkosh, Wis. The utility plane is based on the DC-3. When configured as a troop transporter, it can fly a maximum of 40 soldiers, the company Web site said. Moving a paratrooper regiment up north would take three long trips.

“Probably the most operationally valuable vehicle they could have is a Toyota truck,” the attaché said. “And that’s what they tend to ask for on a regular basis.”

Providing training, transport aircraft and trucks are okay, but the U.S. laws forbid sales of major weapons systems to Mali, and several other countries where the initiative operates.

Without the logistics, the training may not be effective in taking on such groups as the GSPC.

The terrorist group’s current presence in Mali is a matter of debate. Malian military officials, perhaps wary of scaring off the tourists who flock to the north each year to see the historic city of Timbuktu, say their numbers are insignificant. Malian forces have never engaged with the GSPC in battle, Goita said. They pass through the north on a few trucks while accompanying smugglers, he said.

However, he admitted that some of their intelligence on GSPC numbers and movements in the north is given to them by the U.S. military. Mali does not possess high-tech equipment to monitor the border. Meanwhile, U.S. intelligence gathering assets can peer into the desolate Sahara.

Even if Mali did possess such technology, there are thousands of square miles in the nation’s north for Islamists to hide. The region, with its mountainous sand dunes, lack of water and extreme temperatures, is one of the most inhospitable places in the world. It would be a tough spot to maintain a terrorist training camp. The remoteness, however, could be an asset.

With its large territory, smuggling routes, and desperate poverty, Mali has all the conditions a terrorist group needs to take root, EUCOM officials have said.

It is typical of several countries where the United States wants to pursue counter terrorism efforts. The legacy of colonialism left arbitrary borders, usually containing multiple ethnic groups, languages and religions. Islam is the dominant religion in West Africa, but there are pockets of Christians and those who practice traditional African religions. Nomadic herders want to roam freely and have little regard for European-made borders. Disputes over grazing rights can sometimes flare up.

The continent became a proxy battleground in the Cold War, with the Soviet Union vying for influence with the United States. Both nations had an eye on the continent’s abundant natural resources, especially strategic minerals. Today, it’s China competing for these vital resources.

The Cold War is over, but EUCOM commanders believe the continent is again an ideological battleground, especially in the North, the West and Horn of Africa regions, where Islam has been practiced for centuries. Officials fear that terrorists could use remote locations, or take advantage of rogue governments to set up shop, as they did in Afghanistan prior to 9/11.

Each nation on the continent has its own unique mix of challenges. Mali could be considered a case in point. Although ranked among the poorest nations in the world, the country has one of the most stable democracies in the region.

“I would say [Democracy] is thriving …It’s unique in this part of the world,” said U.S. Ambassador Terence McCulley. He spoke in his new office at the U.S. compound only three days after it opened. Next door, construction continued on a new U.S. Agency for International Development building.

“They have had successive and successful elections. Elections don’t necessarily make a democracy, but they are consolidating democratic institutions and are launching a decentralization program.” The government will soon hold local and regional elections, he added.

“The extremist message, which characterizes the GSPC, has very little resonance in northern Mali and southern Mali,” said McCulley. “Malian Islam is a tolerant and open form of the religion, which really has nothing to do with the fundamentalists’ extremist message.”

“It’s important not to underestimate the threat the GSPC presents, but nor is it useful to overestimate the threat,” McCulley said.

Goita was among those who believe that the extremist messages don’t play on the Malian street. He laughed off the GSPC as a threat. “They have no strength, because they have no camps here.”

An International Crisis Group report examining the Defense Department’s efforts in the region also doubted the GSPC’s influence, although it did note that Islamic scholars from countries such as Pakistan were coming to the country to preach. But it found little evidence that they were extremists or violent.

The report, “Islamist Terrorism in the Sahel: Fact or Fiction?” recommended that the U.S. government strike a “healthier balance between military and civilian programs in the Sahel.” The aid has tipped too far in favor of military training, and doesn’t go far enough in addressing societal shortcomings such as health, education and poverty eradication, it said.

The new USAID office in Mali, it noted, was the only one in the core Pan-Sahel Initiative nations of Mali, Niger, Chad and Mauritania.

Ambassador McCulley rejected any criticism that Mali was receiving insufficient aid in non-security sectors.

“The military component is an important part, but it is only one part of what the United States is doing in Mali. We are working on education and health.”

Long-term sustainable development is the most important piece of the initiative, he said.

Mali will receive $461 million in aid over five years under President Bush’s Millennium Challenge Account – a program designed to reward nations that have reached benchmarks in political, social and economic reforms. Of the nine TSCTI nations, only Mali has qualified for the program. Except for Senegal, none is on the “eligible” list.

Ward, however, believes the United States has fallen short balancing military training and development. Both are needed to stop extremism from taking root.

“Does the whole U.S. government look at Africa in this holistic way? That’s part of where we all need to go,” he told reporters in Washington. “We need to look at it in an integrated way.”

But without the security component, it’s difficult to attract foreign investment or effectively distribute aid.

“People become restless, and it becomes fertile ground for other nefarious things that go on,” Ward said, referring to terrorism.

Army Col. Mark Rosengard, director of operations at Special Operations Command, Europe, said whether the GSPC is a threat today is not necessarily the point. In the long term, the program will pay off. “If we can help these countries understand how a professional military looks and works well for a civilian government … then we’ve given ourselves friends and invested in stability.”

Please email your comments to SMagnuson@ndia.org

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