New Evidence of al Qaeda's Interest in West Africa

By Douglas Farah

Since I wrote the first story of al Qaeda's ties to the West African diamond trade, and intensifying after the book came out, parts of the U.S intelligence community, particularly in the CIA and FBI have maintaned there was no al Qaeda presence or interest in West Africa and no historical evidence the group was interested in diamonds or the conflict there. They have been especially adamant that Liberia, as a predominately Christian nation, would not be a place that bin Laden was interested in.

While there has been abundant circumstantial evidence that this was not true, but rather a reflection of the deep ignorance of al Qaeda's history on the African continent, this "fact" has been repeated in responses to Congressonal inquiries, in inter-agency meetings and in meetings with me and others. From the multiple reports on the lack of real information the community had to work with, its erroneous assumptions about al Qaeda are clearly documented. So it is fascinating to read a recent interview in the Al Quds al-Arabi newspaper of March 5, with Nasir al-Bahari, AKA Abu Jandal, a bodyguard of Osama bin Laden. It is one of a series of interviews with the man, where he describes his life with bin Laden, living with al Qaeda and other insights into the terrorist organization, not as a critic, but as an insider relating his story to a sympathetic audience.

In speaking of life with bin Laden in the Sudan, Abu Jandal relates how bin Laden was constantly listening to and analyzing news from the rest of Africa. So this is before 1996, when bin Laden moved back to Afghanistan.

"As for enlarging the scope of al Qaeda in Africa, that is true," he said. "Through Sheik Osama's following of events in all the states near Sudan...even events in Liberia, although it was a faraway country in West Africa. Events took place there, and we did not know what was going on. But through the al Qaeda movement and some Islamic groups, it became clear that the struggle there was an ethnic-religious struggle between Muslims and Christians in a country where Muslims account for 20 percent of the population. That was why many al Qaeda members wished to move jihad to that country, according to al Qaeda's way and the Afghan way. A leader of the Islamic groups in Liberia told us 'We wished we could have contacted the Arab Afghans, so they would shift the balance of power in that struggle in Liberia.' Hence, Sheik Osama's activities in Africa."

Seems pretty clear the interest was there. And, as the book shows, with Ibrahim Bah, the former mujahadeen, in Taylor's inner circle, it was a happy marriage indeed. One more blind spot in an intelligence community flying blind.

TrackBack