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North Africa Topics specific to North Africa and the Sahara down to the 17th parallel (excludes Morocco)
Photo by Marc Gibaud, Clouds on Tres Cerros and Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia

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Photo by Marc Gibaud,
Clouds on Tres Cerros and
Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia



Trans Sahara Routes.

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  #1  
Old 27 Sep 2010
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Abu Zeid portrayed in an interview with Pierre Camatte who met him four times
Abou Zeid: le stratège froid d'Al Qaida au Maghreb - De Bagdad �* Jérusalem : L'Orient indiscret
The claim is now that it was the brother-in-law of MBM who was murdered by Abu Zeid the other day. Not MBM himself (but he may be next).
L'Expression Edition OnLine
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Old 1 Oct 2010
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Biting the hand that feeds them

Interesting report on some of the outcomes of the recent intelligence agency meeting in Algeria -

1) smugglers are to be entrained in the effort to hunt down the locations of AQIM camps (I suppose the assumption is they will work for the highest pay)

2) Initially involving Algeria, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, the group will now also include Burkina Faso, Libya and Chad. (still no Moroc)

Smugglers to track al-Qaeda: News24: Africa: News
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Old 1 Oct 2010
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Quote:
Originally Posted by priffe View Post
Abu Zeid portrayed in an interview with Pierre Camatte who met him four times
Abou Zeid: le stratège froid d'Al Qaida au Maghreb - De Bagdad �* Jérusalem : L'Orient indiscret
These sort of interviews seem very rare these days. After 2003, there were serials, books, TV interviews. Now, a page or so is all we get and usually with the key, informed, interesting questions left out as some journo blunders through. Has anyone seen anything from the Spanish?
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Old 1 Oct 2010
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just my interpretations

I just read the Camatte ABZ interview too. Every time PC crops up in a trenchant article I see a strategic, French govt-sanctioned 'press release'.

Anyone else ('civilians') is expected to shut up and be grateful to be have their lives back.

Interesting that ABZ asked about real time internet sat mapping on the web but can't see that it might work both ways.

Re: smugglers tracking AQIM. I read it as a clumsy bluff to try and shake AQIM up and make them paranoid. AQ and smugglers surely work closely together, no? Some are bound to have a good idea of the AQ network - but will they tell? Maybe for a suitcase of USD.

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Old 1 Oct 2010
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Interesting that ABZ asked about real time internet sat mapping on the web but can't see that it might work both ways.
Ch
I'm a little confused about what ABZ intended in his query about the satellite imagery. If he thinks US spy satellite imagery is available online, then his grasp on the enemy isn't what it should be. If he thinks such imagery is available, he may have been wanting to access it to figure out where counter insurgency forces are.

He may simply have been fishing - he's an older, non-techie guy who lives a long way from civilisation afterall. He may have heard of google earth, for example, and might have been wanting to find out how often it gets updated.
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Old 1 Oct 2010
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Algeria and France are struggling for the initiative in the fight against Aqim.
How will Algeria conduct the fight without letting their troops cross the border, even after they are attacked by Aqim and invited by Mali to pursue the offenders?
Mali leader complaining since he feels this is an Algerian problem that has spread to his country
Le Figaro - deficit-de-cooperation-mali
Quote:
He said that the meeting of the staffs of four countries Sunday "is just one part of a larger plan should be put in place," and recalled that a meeting of intelligence agencies' s was held Wednesday in Algiers. "I called in September 2006, at a conference Sahel-Sahelian for peace and development in the presence of heads of state," he recalls. "But nobody listened to me for four years, four years lost," complains the president of Mali. About the army offensives against Mauritanian AQIM in Mali, he asserts that his country is "open". "We agree that the neighboring states come to us if we can go visit them," he said.

In this struggle against extremist groups, "the role of France should remain in accompanying and supporting the material level," he said. About a possible French military operation, he said that his country would "consider all requests." "But France must listen to us," he added.
Mauri PM chimes in
Alger "peut faire plus" contre Aqmi - Europe1.fr - International

Even Khadaffi joins in and promises money to northern Mali
Kadhafi backs anti-AQIM effort by Mali tribal chiefs (Magharebia.com)

Last edited by priffe; 1 Oct 2010 at 13:02.
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Old 1 Oct 2010
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TheMoorNextDoor updated his info re the attacks this July against Tigarghar mtns.
An Algerian source says that the Mauri attack was a decoy and the real attack to liberate Germenau was done by French + Algs using Alg helicopters.
[url=http://themoornextdoor.wordpress.com/2010/08/03/update-re-raids-against-aqim-in-mali/]Update RE: Raids against AQIM in Mali
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Old 1 Oct 2010
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Quote:
Originally Posted by priffe View Post
An Algerian source says that the Mauri attack was a decoy and the real attack to liberate Germenau was done by French + Algs using Alg helicopters.
[url=http://themoornextdoor.wordpress.com/2010/08/03/update-re-raids-against-aqim-in-mali/]Update RE: Raids against AQIM in Mali
Most of this makes a lot of sense i.e. Alg+French doing the raid by chopper in NE Mali while Mauri does something else in the west. The conspiracy stuff in the second half of para 4 (i.e. France being shafted by Alg) seems very far fetched. The problem with these raids is most likely quite simply: 1) ensuring surprise 2) getting fresh, accurate intelligence on the camp locations. Taken together 1+2 will explain most of the lack of success.
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Fight against al qaeda in the maghreb - Page 2 - The HUBB This thread Refback 23 May 2010 00:10

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