New Al Qaeda Cell A Growing Threat To U.S., Officials Warn N. African-Based Militants Can Blend In Without Raising Suspicions In Europe, U.S.

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CBS News

The new faces of terror are militants inside an emerging Al Qaeda cell, which U.S. officials warn presents a clear and growing threat to America.
Based in North Africa, the group calling itself "Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb" specializes in kidnappings and suicide attacks, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr.
A car bombing last September of an Algerian military barracks killed 28 people. But, follow-up bombings of a United Nations building and a diplomatic office signaled that Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, has bigger plans.
"They have devoted an enormous amount of their energy and their resources to try to build this up as a base to try to carry out attacks, not just in North Africa, but ultimately into West Europe and someday against North America," says Bruce Riedel of the Brookings Institute.
Riedel, a former CIA official, says a propaganda video - just posted on a jihad website - shows a sophisticated attack capability.
But, the most lethal aspect of AQIM - and its real value for Osama bin Laden's terror network - goes beyond firepower.
Says Ambassador Dell Dailey, a U.S. Department of State Counterterrorism official: "Leaders of Al Qaeda and its affiliates are extremely interested in recruiting terrorists from and deploying terrorists to Europe, people familiar with our Western cultures that can travel freely."
And that's exactly who's being drawn to the AQIM training camps - people who can easily blend in without raising suspicions in Europe or the U.S.
"Some of those people are second, third generation and they now have French, Belgian or Spanish passports and a French, Belgian or Spanish passport is exactly what Al Qaeda is looking for because that's their mechanism to get into the United States," Riedel says.
U.S. officials have long worried about British radicals using U.K. passports to bring terror to America. But, now the North African branch of Al Qaeda presents a second pipeline - a doubled threat to the homeland.

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Al Qaeda Targets North Africa

A new Al Qaeda is emerging in North Africa. Though not directly associated with the bin Ladin group, they have declared allegiance in a drive for headlines and have taken to attack the general population as in Iraq. The remnants of the Islamists who fought a civil war in Algeria now want to export terror beyond their borders.
The Daily Star

Moroccan King Mohammad VI on Friday urged North African countries to work together against terrorism, warning his country risks attacks similar to the bombings that hit Algeria.


"We are ready to work with all the leaders of the five Maghreb states to ensure the protection of our people and our countries, and protect against the risks and perils of them turning into a hideous and awful base for terrorism," he said in a condolence message to Algerian President Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika.


Two suicide car bombings in Algiers on Wednesday killed 33 people and wounded more than 220. Al-Qaeda's branch in North Africa, formerly known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, claimed responsibility.


The day before, three suicide bombers blew themselves up and a fourth was killed by police in the Moroccan city of Casablanca, fuelling regional fears of resurgence in militant activity following crackdowns by North African governments.

PINR in it's recent Intelligence Brief attributes the Algerian attack to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, formerly known as the Salafist Group for Call and Combat (G.S.P.C.). Their assessment persuasively concludes that the events in Casablanca were not coordinated with the Algerian attack in any organized way. The Casablanca event was poorly conceived and foiled by police. The Algerian event was "successful", "hitting the heart of Algerian political power and killing tens of people".
The recent enactment of a "policy of national reconciliation has paradoxically prompted the resurgence of Algerian terrorism." PINR notes that:

in the past, Algerian authorities have tried to depict Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb as a region-wide organization that controls all terrorist activities in the area, but this statement has never been supported by any evidence and seems biased toward an overestimation of its structure in order to obtain more military aid from the United States.


On the contrary, the latest operations seem to confirm that Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is still based on the structure and organization of the former G.S.P.C. Algeria acts as the epicenter of Islamic terrorism in the region: the G.S.P.C. is the only group capable of ambushing a military patrol and hitting the prime minister's office in less than ten days; the degree of coordination and discipline needed to achieve these operations is unknown in places like Libya, Tunisia and even Morocco.


In this sense, the renaming of the organization and its affiliation to al-Qaeda (with all the advantages stemming from the use of this world-famous brand, including wider media coverage) can be seen as a major offensive by the G.S.P.C. to impose its regional control and thus become the most important terrorist group in the area.