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| East/Subsaharan Africa | |
| Official: African Terror Hunt Paying Off | |
| 2003-05-05 | |
This story came out Saturday, I hadn't seen it posted:
There's not a lot of those left, anyway. "We have picked up al-Qaida members in those countries," DeLong said in the telephone interview from his office at Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla. He said the successes had been kept "low key" at the request of the local governments. "Sssh, be wery, wery quiet, we're hunting jihadi's!" "Not the very highest rank," was his description of the members of the organization led by Osama bin Laden. He said military operations over the past six months had captured "medium-level al-Qaida in three or four or five of the countries there." I figured we were picking up more bad guys than had been announced. There hasn't been a major attack in a while. A main military focus of the global war on terrorism has been Afghanistan, particularly in recent months along the porous border with Pakistan. But since the fall of the Taliban rule in Afghanistan, the U.S. military has given more attention to finding remnants of al-Qaida in the Horn of Africa region. A two-star Marine Corps general, John Sattler, is running the operation, formally called Task Force Horn of Africa, from the USS Mount Whitney in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Djibouti. There are about 400 people aboard the ship, including liaison officers from countries in the region. About 900 U.S. troops, including special operations forces, are based ashore at Camp Lemonier in Djibouti. DeLong said governments in the region had been extremely helpful. He said he could not predict how long the operation would continue but that Central Command intends to move the task force's headquarters ashore in Djibouti in the next month or so. The three-star general said even if no al-Qaida were being captured in the Horn of Africa, the mere presence of American forces there for a sustained period provides a "comfort factor" for governments in the region. Yup "Knowing we're helping them look for al-Qaida members has paid huge dividends," he said. Senior government officials have been very forthcoming with U.S. officials in the search for terrorists. Seeing what happens when you harbor al-Qaida members helps. DeLong and his staff in Tampa have focused largely on the Horn of Africa and Afghanistan while Gen. Tommy Franks has been running the Iraq war. The 9,000 American troops in Afghanistan may be there for another year or two, DeLong said, and now that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has declared major combat operations over, more countries are expressing interest in joining in reconstruction projects with local Afghan communities. The keys to rebuilding Afghanistan and preventing its return to a terrorist haven include civil affairs teams that are moving across the country to help restore basic services, reopen schools, train teachers and instill a sense of confidence about the future. The first of what the Pentagon calls Provincial Reconstruction Teams has been functioning in Gardez since February. The key to its success, DeLong said, has been the inclusion of Afghan soldiers who are part of an emerging national army trained by U.S. and French troops. French????? "The people of Gardez had never seen a national Afghan force before.... They related with them," he said. "They became sort of the center of gravity because they were comfortable to have, quote, their own soldiers, around." The sooner we get this Afghan army stood up, the better | |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #2 I read another article that said the Afghans want to be soldiers. For one, steady pay. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-05-05 23:18:50 |
| #1 Which is why I told my anti-war friends that Eritrea and Djibouti were worthy countries to have on our side in the war. No, the war and WOT go together. |
| Posted by: Michael 2003-05-05 12:52:08 |