THE CIA IN WEST AFRICA

Mauritania. (flickr.com/photos/72092071@N00/746927408) Author Ferdinand Reus

The USA wants its troops in West Africa.

This because West Africa has oil and gas.

So, the USA appears to be creating an al Qaeda threat to justify Pentagon interference in the region.

There is oil in the Taoudeni Basin. (Taoudeni basin - Wikipedia)

On 13 May, 2010, The Economist (Desert menace) reports on Operation Flintlock.

American special forces are taking part in a joint exercise in Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Senegal, "to combat Islamist terrorism."

The CIA appears to have invented 'al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb' (AQIM).

AQIM began with the Algerian 'Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat' (GSPC).

There is evidence from the past that the Algerian 'terrorists' always worked for the French and Algerian security services.

The New Zealand Listener reported on the links between the security services and the 'Islamic terrorists' in Algeria.

'In recent years, firm evidence has begun to emerge from Algerian military sources and leading academics that the dreaded GIA has been – perhaps from the outset and certainly under Zitouni's bloody leadership – a dummy, or 'screen' organisation managed by French/Algerian counter-intelligence.' - http://www.listener.co.nz/default,1457.sm

According to the Economist, "AQIM’s fighters have long blurred the lines between Islamist militancy and organised crime...

"In recent years Latin American drug gangs have been funnelling a lot of cocaine through west Africa, making the trans-Saharan route far more lucrative."

Could AQIM have links to the CIA?

~~