Jeremy Keenan: West's made-up terror links to blame for killing
Digg
del.icio.us
Facebook
Reddit
Google
Stumble Upon
Fark
Newsvine
YahooBuzz
Bebo
Twitter
Independent Minds
The killing of Edwin Dyer marks a big – and disturbing – change in the Sahara. This is the first time a hostage has been executed in the region. The two women kidnapped with Mr Dyer were released, as were the two Canadian diplomats abducted a couple of months previously. Money likely changed hands in those cases but this latest death isn't about the British policy of not paying ransoms to terrorists. It is far more complicated than that.
The official version of the truth is that all the kidnappings in this desert region have been carried out by the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, now trading as al-Qa'ida in the Maghreb.
My view, however, is that they are the legacy of the West's actions in the Sahara at the beginning of this decade when they stoked up – or rather fabricated – the terrorist threat so they could justify a second African front in the war on terror. There was already the Bin Laden link in Somalia and they wanted one on Africa's west coast, too.
I didn't think the kidnappers would dare kill a British hostage but they clearly wanted to show that they pose a real danger, that they are genuine terrorists. Terrorism in the Sahel, which began as Western-backed propaganda, has become a self-fulfilling prophesy. Mr Dyer's murder is part of an immensely complex and long-running story. It started in 2002 when there were plans by Algerian security forces to kidnap Western tourists to make it look like there was terrorism in the Sahara. In 2003, 32 Europeans were taken hostage in a series of abductions run by a man known as El Para, an agent of the Algerian intelligence service, the DRS.
The Algerians organised the hostage takings and they did it in cahoots with the Americans – although Washington always denied it. There followed a whole range of US-backed military initiatives which just happened to coincide with the time when energy-hungry Western countries were trying to reduce their reliance on Middle East oil and find alternative energy sources.
After those initial, eye-catching kidnappings – and more importantly, the surge in US-backed counter-terrorism operations that followed – it went quiet. But trouble erupted again in February 2008 when two Austrians were taken hostage. The Austrians were captured in Tunisia and taken down to Mali, a move which would be impossible unless the Algerian security forces were complicit. I was involved in the negotiations to free them, dealing with the point man for Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, who was involved in the 2003 kidnappings. He is listed on UN documents as a known al-Qa'ida member but I have seen considerable evidence which suggests that he is an Algerian DRS agent. And surprise, surprise, his name comes up again in the case of Mr Dyer.
It seems the genie is starting to escape the bottle of its own accord. What the West set up in the glory days of the war on terror seems to have spiralled out of control. The culpability for Mr Dyer's murder rests as much with Western intelligence services as with al-Qa'ida.
The author is a professor of social anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and the author of The Dark Sahara: America's War on Terror in Africa
View all comments that have been posted about this article.
Offensive or abusive comments will be removed and your IP logged and may be used to prevent further submission. In submitting a comment to the site, you agree to be bound by the Independent Minds Terms of Service.
- Print Article
- Email Article
-
Click here for copyright permissions
Copyright 2009 Independent News and Media Limited
Comments
The strategic implication of this tragic killing is that it will reduce the ability for Europeans to get insurance to travel to these countries. In turn access can only be made by Muslim countries.
I think there is a much more serious strategic, dare I say Whabist, effort being made to exclude Europeans from these countries than this 'US did it' conspiracy theory suggests.
When you tie the two ends together, the picture that emerges makes your skin creep: US spooks bribe Algerian stooges to carry out false-flag terrorist attacks to provide an excuse for AFRICOM, the Yanks' military/intel command center for colonizing Africa, to move in on resource-rich African states. On the other end, IntelCenter and its sister psyops shop SITE churn out fake Al Qaeda videos to whip up the paranoia at home.
Although AFRICOM is trying to interfere as much as possible in the continent's affairs, it has yet to score a single success. It has even failed to convince a single African country (aside from Liberia, whose statehood is very open to question) to host its HQ. Obama foolishly pursues the neocon policy of militarizing Africa to counteract China's rapidly expanding commercial presence there, unaware that he is picking yet another fight he can't win, starting a fourth war to add to his growing list of quagmires.
The author is a professor of social anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and the author of The Dark Sahara: America's War on Terror in Africa
Let us get some fact on Africa to start with. Is this not the continent USA and UK imported the slaves from?
Most of the Negroes of the NBA and the president come form Africa. Let us not foolishly outcast Africa, call Libya or any 1 country as breeding home of terrorists. We have Al Qaeda and Taliban now. Did we have these before 9/11? We are waking up to new boundaries of land. We had Hitler and Churchill. Abraham Lincoln and Kennedys. We had Red Indian , Spaniards and Negros ghettos. We had in South Africa the, ?Only white allowed no black and dogs?. The apartheids regime. . Then world cried out, ?foul? we have Mugabe who has the currency of Zimbabwe's new coalition Government has decided to withdraw the country's worthless currency from circulation for at least a year and rely exclusively on other hard currencies.
''We resolved there will be no immediate plans to introduce the money because there is nothing to support its value,'' he said.
In late January, when it took 20trillion Zimbabwe dollars to equal $US1 ($A1.41), the Government adopted international hard currencies, mostly the United States dollar and the South African rand, as legal tender alongside the local currency.
Inflation running into percentage points with 15 zeroes had made trade in Zimbabwe dollars impossible and business was already conducted predominantly in hard currencies, albeit technically illegal.
When you go to the market all will try to persuade you buy their products. Are you brainless and buy all or do you choose and buy? Well read in the same manner.
'Poison Found At Home Of White Supremacist'
Traces of the deadly poison ricin may have been found in a jam jar at the house of a suspected white supremacist, police have said. Therefore, all Whites are like Saddam?
I thank you
Firozali A. Mulla
Burn the literati read The Independent UK Ltd, especially Yasmin Alibhai. She writes a lot on the English, Debbi writes on the unborn. Fisk likes the fish, Most Read Journalists
John Rentoul on the rats
Stephen Foley on today?s folly in the trolley
Guy Adams on the Gays
Jane Merrick on the merits of the fun
Ian Burrell on the six guns of the Nevaron
Sean O'Grady on the greed of today pay 2 morrows
Michael Church is always in the church very saintly, he never whistles.
Andy McSmith eats McDonald.
Rob Williams the author of Robin the Hood
Catherine Townsend the new Mayor
Simon Rice the Chinese Kung Fu champion now Ed of the Chorines paper
However, why do I have to tell you all these. You are above 18? REad them they are very good tasty bites come here not Magereb or Mashrek East
I thank you
Firozali A. Mulla