Counterterrorism Blog

By Michael Kraft

Concerned that Africa could become another Afghanistan-style haven for terrorists, a House International Relations Subcommittee heard State Department and Defense Department officials call for long term and coordinated assistance to deter future major attacks.

Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), the new chairman of the HIRC Subcommittee on Terrorism and Non-Proliferation, held a hearing yesterday afternoon to discuss U.S training efforts he described as “aimed at eliminating the ’next Afghanistan’; another terrorist sanctuary like the one from which Osama bin Ladin initiated the 9/11 attacks.”

Royce noted that “Historically Africa has been ignored, yet it was in Tanzania and Kenya that our embassies were attacked and Americans and Africans were killed. Osma bin Ladin was harbored early on in Sudan. The terrorist threat in Africa is real and growing.”

In the previous session of Congress, Rep. Royce was chairman of the HIRC Africa subcommittee. In January, he visited Chad where the U.S. is training troops under the Pan-Sahel Initiative (PSI).

William Pope, the State Department’s Acting Coordinator for Counterterrorism, testified that $8.4 million is being spent on the PSI, to provide counterterrorism training focused on Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Chad. To complement the military training, the State Department’s Antiterrorism Assistance Program (ATA) has provided $6.6 million to civilian law enforcement officials in FY 2004 and 2005, he said.

Rear Admiral Hamlin B. Tallent, Director of the European Plans and Operations Center for the United States European Command (EUCOM) said Africa was a danger point for terrorism because “the broad expanses of ungoverned or poorly governed regions, as well as the proximity and ease of movement to population centers in Europe, are increasingly attractive to transnational terrorists interested in exploiting the region for recruiting, logistics and safe havens. The breeding grounds of terrorism and illicit activity on the continent of Africa require our attention at both the national and regional security level.”

Rep. Brad Sherman D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, said that in working out assistance, it is important to prioritize and identify both the key problems, and “which countries have the desire but not the resources” to strengthen their ability to take measures against terrorists.

Admiral Tallent, departing from his text in his opening remarks, said it is not enough to offer aid on a short term basis. “We have to look at our programs in the long term. We can not just provide some training and walk away, we need continued efforts, over five to six years,” Admiral Tallent said.

“We are running a marathon, not a sprint,” Pope said. “The starter gun went off in 1993 with the first attack on the World Trade Center… There is no question that Americans are safer if we can assist our international partners to stop terrorists overseas, before they are able to bring violence to our home shores. That assistance must be robust and sustained for its efforts to be realized,” he added.

Both witnesses put their finger on a key problem. In many countries in Africa and elsewhere, there is a shortage of qualified personnel. Often when the officials do receive training from the U.S. and other countries, they sometimes later move onto other positions, making it necessary to train replacements to sustain continued capability. Meanwhile, the budgets are spread thin. The FYI 2006 request sent to Congress after it was approved by OMB is $133 .5 million. Africa traditionally gets a smaller slice of the pie than the Middle East, South Asia and other regions.

Coordination is another issue, although improving. Admiral Tallent said under questioning that there are problems in short-term interagency coordination. He said the State Department and Defense Departments do not seem to have the same planning tools and process. These differences in bureaucratic cultures and processes “are stifling our ability to do more international planning,” Tallent told the subcommittee.

Pope said there were a number of existing coordinating mechanisms (one interagency group deals with coordinating training). In his prepared testimony Pope said “there must be a solid coordination of our engagement assistance abroad. …In our missions overseas, the more nuanced work of ensuring collaboration among various members of the country teams is and must remain the responsibility of the Chief of Mission.”

This is a long-standing State Department position but the emphasis in the testimony apparently is in reaction to press reports that the Pentagon was seeking White House approval to have authority to insert small Special Forces teams into a country without notifying the U.S. Ambassador.

The hearing was Pope’s last Congressional testimony. He is retiring from the Foreign Service today after 35 years in government Service. His quick departure is another reflection of the continuing turnover in the Administration’s counterterrorism and Homeland Security leadership. The previous coordinator, Cofer Black served about two years and announced his retirement on Election Day. He departed two weeks later and recently joined a security firm, Blackwell. Pope, then the principal deputy, became acting coordinator. The new acting coordinator will be the current deputy, Karen Aguilar, a Foreign Service officer. No word has surfaced yet on a possible new coordinator.