Opinion

What Obama could learn from France about stopping terrorists

To defend itself from terrorist attacks, the US should go on the offensive with a proactive strategy, like France.

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Even though the Obama administration has elevated Pakistan in its antiterror sights, the threat it poses directly to the US is still underestimated. This nuclear-armed state might be at risk in the future if the growing activities of the Taliban and other radical Islamist movements are not stanched in time.

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Equally underestimated is the worsening situation in the Maghreb and the Sahel. In order to reinforce his operational capability during the Iraqi insurgency against the US, the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who headed Al Qaeda in Iraq, reached out to high-ranking members of the Algerian group Fighting and Preaching Salafist Group (GSPC ).

After Zarqawi’s death in 2006, the leadership of GSPC swore formal allegiance to Al Qaeda, meeting with high-ranking members – probably Ayman al-Zawahiri – in the tribal zones of Pakistan and changing its name to “Al Qaeda in the Maghreb Lands” (AQIM).

As part of the Al Qaeda network, the aim of AQIM is to destabilize the Maghreb, mainly Algeria, and extend its activity into the Sahara using Mali, a very weak country, to set up a stronghold in Mauritania. From this country, AQIM plans to extend its influence to West Africa. It is now recruiting members in Senegal and has established operational connections with cells in Niger, some of which are suspected of links with radical Islamists in Nigeria, the home, of course, of Umar Farouk Abdulmutalib, the man charged in the Christmas Day bombing attempt. More than a mere coincidence, this is a visible sign of the increasing role of Africa as a breeding ground for terrorism.

Clearly, the failed Christmas Day terrorist act has jolted the US into a recognition that attacks on its homeland will be a part of Al Qaeda’s strategy for a long time to come. The best way for the US to defend itself is to go on the offensive with a proactive strategy that beats Al Qaeda and its allies at their own game.

Jean-Louis Bruguiere was the leading French magistrate for investigating counterterrorism from 1981 to 2007.

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