Archive for Algeria

Protest and Pessimism in the Maghreb

Posted by: Ion | September 10th, 2007 · 7:08 PM

The left-leaning (if allegedly nonpartisan) 501(c)(3) group Americans for Informed Democracy (AID), has taken exception to our reposting from June, of SnappedShot’s enormously amusing Islamic Rage Boy project. AID notes that there seems little interest on our part by contrast, in heartening nationwide demonstrations in Algeria to protest Al Qaeda’s brutal terrorist operations there.

The weekend protests staged mostly by Muslim women, had some of the better chants you’ll read this year:

The crowd, which was made up mainly of women, chanted slogans such as “Terrorists are not Muslims” and “the Algerian people reject terrorism and support President Abdelaziz Bouteflika
(BBC via Americans for Informed Democracy)

This peaceful popular revolt is coming on the heels of the revelation that Al Qaeda is in acute crisis in North Africa, following the surrender of Benmessaoud Abdelkader, a key zonal emir of Al Qaeda (formerly of the notorious GSPC). Under debriefing by Algerian authorities, Abdelkader portrayed an encouragingly chaotic situation within the organization, perhaps conditioned by the July death of Sid Ali Rachid, the mastermind of AQ’s more spectacular attacks on the Bouteflika government.

In this context, AID was using us in a general and cynical rebuke of conservative (or at least anti-salafi) blogs and their zeal for pillorying the fanaticism of Rage Boy, at the expense of a more sympathetic Muslim majority (the extraneous component of the Rage boy’s unfair argument). But since I first read about the demonstration on Gateway Pundit and it’s thereby making the rounds on the rightblogs (and as customarily is being largely ignored by the Left, in its obsession with domestic politics), the point is more than a little unfair.

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Review: The Devil Came on Horseback by Brian Steidle and Gretchen Steidle Wallace

Posted by: Ion | May 7th, 2007 · 11:09 AM

The Devil Came on Horseback: Bearing Witness to the Genocide in Darfur by Brian Steidle and Gretchen Steidle Wallace
(Public Affairs, 230 pages, market price: $16.47)

Two thousand years ago, Marcus Aurelius observed in his Meditations, that it was absurdly wrong that man’s spirit so often surrenders before his body has begun to. There are few occasions where that sad reality is as true as in Darfur, where systematic genocide by the Government of Sudan (GOS) was dismissed as inevitable, hopeless, or irrelevant by the world long before even the most minimal efforts had been made to confront or stop it. The international community’s body was strong, but its spirit was hollow.

But what has been largely true of international politics, was not true of everyone. In 2004, a young man named Brian Steidle was hired by the African Union as an international observer in their mission to document enforcement of the then tentative ceasefire agreement in the war in Darfur. This book is a product of his experiences there, as that ceasefire (never genuinely observed by Sudan), collapses and open violence spreads.

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India’s Irregular Terror Front

Posted by: Ion | April 12th, 2007 · 8:26 PM

A statement, released by India’s Ministry of External Affairs on Al Qaeda’s bombing in Algiers:

“Terrorism is a heinous crime and cannot be condoned in any form. The international community should cooperate closely to counter terrorism everywhere with renewed resolve and total firmness”
(DailyIndia)

It’s a pleasant sentiment. We’re ready whenever Dr. Singh is, to isolate the world’s largest financier of terrorism. Unfortunately, he seems to have other plans at present.

It only took five years or so for statements of this sort to acquire the force and resolve of Indian opposition to hunger in Africa. The rejuvenation of action from the subcontinental behemoth must be a priority. Their position on Iran and other terror states is untenable and enormously damaging to any containment strategy.

If the United States were to legitimately exercise her enormous trade power with Delhi to effectuate change, there’s little doubt the Indians would persist. If State wants a backdoor diplomatic vehicle to Tehran and Damascus, for Pete’s sake use Azerbaijan, which has been begging for the job for years.

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