About the Author:  To change this standard text, you have to enter some information about your self in the Dashboard -> Users -> Your Profile box. Read more from this author

Back and Stronger Than Ever

A recently released U.S. intelligence report paints an alarming picture about the resurgence and renewed threat posed by Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network. According to this document, Al Qaeda and the Taliban have been able to re-energize over the last several months, in part due to the hands off policy of Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf. The terror group is also tapping into Iraqi subordinates, who are helping to spur on Sunni Muslim extremists in various parts of the world, and to recruit, train and inculcate Al Qaeda cells in Iraq.

These developments pose some new and daunting challenges for U.S. counter terrorism efforts. Newsweek writes: “the U.S. counterterrorism community may now be facing the worst of both worlds: a reconstituted Al Qaeda leadership coupled with a growing and dispersed worldwide army of angry jihadis inflamed by the U.S. presence in Iraq.”

North Africa: A Weak Link in the Al Qaeda Network

While most of the recent front-page, above the fold stories on Al-Qaeda focus their attention on the Middle East as a source of the problem, there are some in the media and in blog discussions who are pointing their fingers to another part of the world: North Africa and in particular, the countries of Morocco, Tunisia, Libya and Algeria – also, known as the Maghreb region.

The concern is the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (SGPC), a group that was born some decades ago to counter the Algerian government, but who are more recently touting and attempting to carry out a much broader agenda to create terror around the world.

The group is very much alive. According to EUROPOL, the European Union’s criminal intelligence unit, most of the 340 individuals who were arrested for terrorist activities in the EU during the latter parts of 2005 and in 2006 came from the countries of Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. Many of those individuals were from or associated with the SGPC.

The group has ties to Iraq. Some estimates indicate that between 9 to 25% of all foreign fighters in Iraq are from the Maghreb region and the SGPC has played an active role in channeling many of these militants to Iraq .

The group also has strong ties to Al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda was instrumental in helping with the early formation of SGPC and provided financial backing for the SGPC cause. And both groups have publicly proclaimed support for each other’s efforts.

Tracing the Origins of Al-Qaeda

The map below lends some support to the concerns that have been raised about North Africa being a major player in the global terrorism network. It shows the birthplaces of some 200 individuals who have been said to be associated with Al-Qaeda, including the group’s ringleader, Osama Bin Laden.

The data was extracted from the U.N. List of “Individuals and Entities Associated with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda”, which includes as one element in its list where each associate was born – in most cases, down to the city, town or district level. Google Earth and other cartographic resources were used to identify latitude and longitude coordinates for each location and to geocode where Al-Qeada members are from. Individuals associated with the Taliban were not mapped.

According to the data, Al-Qaeda has origins in many parts of the world, including the Middle East, the Pacific region and even parts of Europe and the U.S. However, almost a majority come from portions of North Africa. In fact, a little over 40% on the U.N. list were born in Tunisia, Morocco, Libya or Algeria. Many of these members are relatively young, under the age of 40.

Time to Rethink the Geography of U.S. Foreign Policy?

So while many focus on Iraq and other parts of the Middle East as the centerpoint of Al Qaeda’s network, our map does reveal a distinctly different picture. Some like the Huffington Post question the strength of the organization post 9-11, but are we targeting the right places? Will winning Iraq or comparing annual growth rates make a difference with so many terrorists coming from untargeted countries? These issues highlight the geographic complexities of U.S. Foreign policy on terrorism and suggest some of the challenges we face in the war on terrorism.

Popularity: 5% [?]