‘‘A 4,300-mile-long ribbon of land that runs from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea.’’
"Al Qaeda carves out own country in Mali; Northern Mali now its territory" by Rukmini Callimachi |
Associated Press, January 06, 2013
MOPTI, Mali — Deep inside caves, in remote desert bases, in the
escarpments and cliff faces of northern Mali, Islamic fighters are
burrowing into the earth, erecting a formidable set of defenses to
protect what has essentially become Al Qaeda’s new country.
Well, there goes the neighborhood.
And if you will excuse, I need to use the toilet. Happens every time I see that term.
They have used the bulldozers, earth movers, and loaders left behind
by fleeing construction crews to dig what residents and local officials
describe as an elaborate network of tunnels, trenches, shafts, and
ramparts.
I didn't know terrorists knew how to operate heavy equipment.
In just one case, inside a cave large enough to drive trucks into,
they have stored up to 100 drums of gasoline, guaranteeing their fuel
supply in the face of a foreign intervention, according to analysts.
Northern Mali is now the biggest territory held by Al Qaeda and its
allies. And as the world hesitates, delaying a military intervention,
the extremists who seized control of the area last year are preparing
for a war they boast will be worse than the decade-old struggle in
Afghanistan.
‘‘Al Qaeda never owned Afghanistan,’’ said former United Nations
diplomat Robert Fowler, a Canadian kidnapped and held for 130 days by Al
Qaeda’s local chapter, whose fighters now control the main cities in
the north. ‘‘They do own northern Mali.’’
Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Africa has been a shadowy presence for
years in the forests and deserts of Mali, a country hobbled by poverty
and a relentless cycle of hunger.
Whenever the agenda-pushing AmeriKan press uses words like shadowy or murky it means they are hiding something.
In recent months, the terror syndicate and its allies have taken
advantage of political instability within the country to push out of
their hiding place and into the towns, taking over an enormous territory
which they are using to stock arms, train forces, and prepare for
global jihad.
The catalyst for the Islamic fighters was a military coup nine months
ago that transformed Mali from a once-stable nation to the failed state
it is today.
Hmmmmmmmm! I think I know who was behind that now!
On March 21, disgruntled soldiers invaded the presidential palace.
The fall of the nation’s democratically elected government at the hands
of junior officers destroyed the military’s command-and-control
structure, creating the vacuum which allowed a mix of rebel groups to
move in.
Uh-huh.
With no clear instructions from their higher-ups, the humiliated
soldiers left to defend those towns tore off their uniforms, piled into
trucks, and beat a retreat as far as Mopti, roughly in the center of
Mali.
They abandoned everything north of this town to the rebels, handing
them an area that extends over more than 240,000 square miles. It is a
territory larger than Texas or France.
Turbaned fighters now control all the major towns in the north,
carrying out amputations in public squares like the Taliban did. Just as
in Afghanistan, they are flogging women for not covering up. Since
taking control of Timbuktu, they have destroyed seven of the 16
mausoleums listed as world heritage sites.
The area under their rule is mostly desert and sparsely populated,
but analysts say that due to its size and the hostile nature of the
terrain, rooting out the extremists here could prove even more difficult
than it did in Afghanistan.
Mali’s former president has acknowledged, according to diplomatic
cables, that the country cannot patrol a frontier twice the length of
the border between the United States and Mexico.
Wikileaks so discredited it doesn't even merit a mention.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, known as AQIM, operates not just in Mali, but in a corridor along much of the northern Sahel.
This 4,300-mile-long ribbon of land runs across the widest part of
Africa, and includes sections of Mauritania, Niger, Algeria, Libya,
Burkina Faso, and Chad.
‘‘One could come up with a conceivable containment strategy for the
Swat Valley,’’ said Africa expert Peter Pham, an adviser to the US
military’s African command center, referring to the region of Pakistan
where the Pakistan Taliban have been based. ‘‘There’s no containment
strategy for the Sahel, which runs from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red
Sea.’’
--more--"
Also see: Globe Xmas Gift: AmeriKa to Occupy Africa
Sunday Globe Special: Libyan Attack Led to Accelerated AmeriKan Occupation of Africa
And now the "terrorists" have taken over Mali.
