Algeria’s government was badly shaken by al-Qaida bombings three years ago as the terrorist organisation opened a new front in north Africa and the country’s “sclerotic and suspicious” security forces struggled to respond, U.S. diplomatic cables show.
But secret reports from the U.S. embassy in Algiers reveal that intelligence co-operation with the U.S. has since improved so much that Washington considers Algeria the most important country now fighting al-Qaida in the Maghreb region.
In December 2007, however, there was embarrassed silence from Algeria’s president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, after bombings of a U.N. building and the supreme court in the capital killed 41 people.
U.S. embassy cables show disarray, confusion and an inability to handle basic security problems.
Many of the embassy’s Algerian contacts attributed the president’s silence after the attacks “to his embarrassment that the suicide bombers were previously known to the security services” and that they benefited from an official reconciliation programme for former militants.
Some of 250 or more Islamists who had been granted amnesties had joined AQIM (Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb). By February 2008, however, U.S. co-operation with Algerian military intelligence had improved and paid dividends. “They are a prickly, paranoid group to work with,” the embassy reported, “but with them we have rolled up several networks that sent Algerian jihadis to Iraq.” An FBI office had been set up at the embassy for collaborative programmes with the interior ministry though, in military and security co-operation, the Algerians remained “exceptionally careful”.
In September 2008 AQIM called for the assassination of Condoleezza Rice, then U.S. secretary of state, on her visit to Algiers. Algerian security forces foiled a plot to attack the Hassi Messaoud airport, reportedly acting on information received from an al-Qaida cell in Europe.
By late 2009, the U.S. documents show, Algeria had “taken the lead” in persuading its Mauritanian, Nigerian and Malian neighbours to set up a regional command for joint counter-terrorism operations at Tamanrasset, south Algeria.
A senior Algerian official told U.S. officials: “AQIM wants to embed itself in the region and, therefore, Algeria intended to take the fight beyond Algeria’s borders. Like a skilled boxer ... the key is to keep pressure on your opponent and increase your room for manoeuvre.” When the Algerians pressed for more intelligence sharing, a U.S. defence official said surveillance overflights would have to be linked to direct action on the ground as the cost of one mission was about $50,000. Algeria also needed sophisticated improvised explosive device jammers because insurgents used cell phones to detonate IEDs remotely.
The cables show that the Algerians were scathing about Mali, saying officials in the capital, Bamako, had “alerted insurgents that their cell phone calls were being monitored and leaked sensitive intelligence”. Algeria also accused Mali of facilitating ransom payments for hostages, and called the country “a favourable business environment for terrorists”. Late in 2009 Algeria was reportedly slow to respond to a U.S. request to allow surveillance flights by EP-3 aircraft in areas of Mauritania and Mali where AQIM operated. This followed a visit by the US Africa command chief, General William Ward.
The flights were later approved, but a new problem emerged in January when the Algerian foreign minister summoned the U.S. ambassador, David Pearce, to complain that the nation was on a list for “enhanced screening” by the U.S. transportation security administration. “The placement of Algeria on a list that includes state sponsors of terrorism and countries of interest creates the impression that Algeria is part of the problem and less than a full partner in the fight against terrorism,” the envoy was told.
Pearce reported to Washington: “Over the past year we have had a green light to develop new ties across the board, from military to law enforcement. That light has now turned yellow. It is worth remembering that no country is more important than Algeria in the fight against al-Qaida in the Sahel and Maghreb.”
Copyright: Guardian News & Media 2010
