Well, Binneh Minteh, this article raises some issues of major concern. For 
example, training African armies for more secure borders and the prevention of 
arms smuggling and other illegal activities is fine, but what about in cases 
where the powers that be in particular African countries are infact part and 
parcel of this arms smuggling activity and we all know that in those instances, 
the government of the day are dictatorships or tyrants who control what orders 
these armies carry out? Would that not only give them better opportunity to 
carry on with the smuggling activity while getting the bonus of a better trained 
army whose services they will use to further terrorize their own people? 
I think that to control arms smuggling and to prevent cooperation between 
terrorist groups and tyrant governments in Africa who understand only the need to 
get money from whoever and whatever will give it to them, the issue is to 
work with Africans so that they can have legitimate democratic governments who 
will work to curb the flow of illegal arms that not only feed a terrorist 
network, but also continue to be a major danger to the everyday lives of civilians 
in these African countries.

I think since the U.S recognizes that poverty and marginalization of Africas' 
youth may make them vulnerable to recruitment by terrorist elements, the 
answer is not just to provide military training in these African countries, but 
also economic assistance that can translate into educational and job 
opportunities as well as oppotunities for small business startups because most of these 
youth who feel disenfranchised will not end up in any army.
What do you think?

Jabou Joh

In a message dated 3/10/04 4:39:08 PM Central Standard Time, [log in to unmask] 
writes:


> Trained African Armies Key to Terror Fight in Africa, Says US European
> Command Deputy
>    allAfrica.com http://allafrica.com/stories/200403090576.html
> 
> Trained African Armies Key to Terror Fight in Africa, Says US European
> Command Deputy
> 
> March 8, 2004
> Posted to the web March 9, 2004
> 
> Charles Cobb Jr.
> Washington, DC
> 
> The United States is stepping up its efforts to partner with Africa in the
> war on terror, says the deputy commander of the US European Command
> (USEUCOM) General Charles F. Wald. Although he wouldn't compare it to
> Afghanistan or Pakistan, he said Al Qaeda is definitely present in Africa,
> and the United States "can't wait for the problem to get larger."
> 
> General Wald, who briefed a small group of Africa-focused journalists
> Monday, has just returned from a seven-day, 11-nation tour of Africa that
> included stops in Luanda, Lagos, Pretoria, Cape Town, Accra, Tunis, Niamey
> and Algiers.
> 
> 
> Over the past month, there have been two other visits to Africa by senior
> U.S. military figures - General James L. Jones, who is the Supreme Allied
> Commander, Europe (SACEUR) as well as the USEUCOM Commander, and Air Force
> Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Kohler, USEUCOM's key planner in force reconfiguration,
> who visited Mauritania, Mali and Niger.
> 
> Forty eight African nations fall within the area of operation of USEUCOM,
> which is headquartered near Stuttgart, Germany. Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia,
> Eritrea, Somalia and Kenya fall within the province of the U.S. Central
> Command (USCENTCOM), headquartered in Tampa, Florida.
> 
> "I am concerned about the large ungoverned areas of Africa that are
> possibly melting pots for the disenfranchised of the world, so to speak,
> the terrorist breeding grounds," General Jones told congressional leaders
> last June. "I believe that we're going to have to engage more in that
> theater."
> 
> USEUCOM is concerned that poverty and alienation from government,
> especially among youth, make Africa a fertile recruiting ground for Al
> Qaeda and other organizations. There is further concern that the oil
> resources south of the Sahel - now supplying the U.S. with 15 percent of
> its oil needs - could be at risk.
> 
> The African nations he visited agree that Al Qaeda and other terrorist
> organizations may have found some sanctuary and perhaps even established
> new bases on the continent, said Wald. They "definitely have an interest in
> the Sahel," he said. And in West Africa, arms and drug smuggling help
> supply weapons and cash. "We still know that in Sierra Leone, diamonds are
> going out illegally. Al Qaeda has been interested in that as a funding
> source -- no doubt about it; so is Hezbolla, in a huge way."
> 
> U.S. intelligence believes terrorist groups have set up camps and opened up
> supply lines through northern Mali’s largely ungoverned desert wastelands
> along the Algerian border, Stars and Stripes newspaper reported in their
> June 17, 2003 European edition. "They have established lines of
> communication that support operations in and out of the region," the paper
> said, quoting a "top level military official." This "no-man’s land is far
> enough off the beaten path they can also conduct training camps there."
> 
> Everywhere he goes in Africa, Wald said, there is "resonance and agreement"
> that the need to fight extremism and terrorism "is something we (the United
> States and Africa) have in common."
> 
> The small and often poorly equipped and trained armies throughout Africa
> need U.S. assistance, Wald said. Currently, U.S. special operations forces
> are training armies in Mali, Niger, Mauritania and Chad as part of a State
> Department-funded program called The Pan Sahel Initiative (PSI). According
> to USEUCOM, the program, which trains selected units "on mobility,
> communications, land navigation, and small unit tactics," is "designed to
> enhance border capabilities throughout the region against arms smuggling,
> drug trafficking, and the movement of trans-national terrorists." Expanding
> the initiative to include Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria is under
> consideration.
> 
> This is a first step for USEUCOM in a regional approach to combating
> terrorism in which African nations take the lead. "I can see the South
> Africans and the Angolans cooperating in the future on regional security",
> said Wald. USEUCOM wants to reach agreement with governments across Africa
> on the use of airports for fuel stops - "Forward Operating Stations...that
> we can stop in, refuel in...I look at any place in Africa that has a runway
> or port that wants to be friends with the United States or we have a
> relationship with as a potential forward-operating location that we could
> temporarily use."
> 
> Relevant Links
> 
> United States, Canada and Africa
> Arms and Military Affairs
> International Terrorism
> 
> 
> 
> In addition, USEUCOM has in mind establishment of a half dozen "low-
> maintenance" bases at airports or remote camps, each one manned by up to
> 200 U.S. troops.
> 
> Wald expressed concern that Africa's major health and humanitarian crisis,
> the HIV/Aids pandemic, was becoming a "strategic" issue affecting security.
> Referring especially to South Africa, Wald said that HIV "limits the number
> of troops they can deploy at any one time." South Africa's military has
> received US$2.2mil from USEUCOM for "study, identification, education,
> prevention and treatment and follow-up," on HIV/Aids. "It may be the first
> wholistic approach in the world," he said.
> 
> Binneh s minteh
> New York university

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