US faces test to secure E. Africa

It's the usual Friday night crowd at the Pavement Club in Nairobi's Westlands: Young expatriates, upper-middle-class locals, a sprinkling of Asians, a few prostitutes. But the Americans with the crew cuts and G-Shock watches sipping energy drinks at the bar stand out.

"We are here to see the wildlife," one explains brightly.

Since the hotel bombing by Al Qaeda that killed 13 people two weeks ago in Mombasa, Kenya is awash with crew-cut types: undercover intelligence agents - both Israeli and American - sorting through evidence, talking to eyewitnesses, trying to find the clues that will lead them to the perpetrators of the attack and their backers.

Four years after the bombing of the US Embassy in Nairobi that killed 219 people, the US has once again been rudely reminded of the danger involved in ignoring Africa. The Bush administration is, therefore, increasing its presence on the continent, strengthening allies to assist in the fight against terrorism. But in a poor region with porous borders, weak or corrupt governments, cheap arms, and an increasingly radical Muslim community, this is no easy task.

"If the US does not plug the terror hole here, however tricky that might be," says Moustafa Hassouna, lecturer at the University of Nairobi's Institute of Diplomacy and International Studies, "then it can only expect more terror from here. It knows it needs to get moving."

The US appears to be getting the message. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wrapped up a trip through neighboring Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Djibouti this week; the USS Mount Whitney - a floating command post for the new Joint Task Force Horn of Africa, which is to oversee antiterror operations in the region - is en route with 400 troops to Djibouti, where some 800 special forces and several hundred marines are already stationed; and a White House advance team checked into the Nairobi Safari Park Hotel Wednesday, holding schedules showing a tentative presidential visit here on Jan. 16.

Mr. Rumsfeld emphasized that he was not in the region to "engage in transactions," or "put pressure on anybody," but he did indicate the possibility of expanding US military presence in the region. Several African countries here - including both Ethiopia and Eritrea - have reportedly already offered their countries as bases for US troops. In his Washington meeting last week with Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, President George W. Bush stressed that African allies would be helpful not only in providing bases for the US, but also in sharing information.

Intelligence gathering and sharing, say experts, should be the US's priority. Stephen Morrison, Africa director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says that diplomatic and intelligence personnel have been reduced in Africa over the past decade, leading to incomplete knowledge of quickly changing trends on the ground.

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