The Islamist Move to East Africa

By Douglas Farah

On of the most important parts of the growth of al Qaeda related groups or other armed and like-minded organizations, is the transfer of knowledge and technologies. It is something at which al Qaeda has excelled, both in the transfer of "lessons learned" in fighting U.S. and European troops, and in adapting and sharing what works. This is true with the IEDs, suicide bombing technology and other areas.

So the Associated Press story on the move to transfer technology from the Pakistani border regions to Africa is worrisome, particularly given the ties that already exist with the al Shaab movements and al Qaeda's infrastructure in Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa.

Africom, struggling to find a home and a mission that is viable in the region, is handicapped by a severe lack of intelligence resources on the ground.

The cluster of militants now believed to be operating inside East Africa could pass on sophisticated training and attack techniques gleaned from seven years at war against the U.S. and allies in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. officials said.

"There is a level of activity that is troubling, disturbing," Gen. William "Kip" Ward, head of U.S. Africa Command, told The Associated Press. "When you have these vast spaces that are just not governed it provides a haven for support activities, for training to occur."

I personally don't like the use of ungoverned spaces as a definition of areas where the state is not present. Almost all of those spaces are, in fact governed, just not by state actors that we recognize. But the pirate clans certainly govern some parts of the Somali coast, al Shaabab other parts, and the fragile government a few others. My full blog is here.