CEIP, 9 May 07: Demilitarizing Algeria
...With Bouteflika’s health now in question, his chances of securing a third term in 2009 are in doubt and arguments over the succession have already begun to preoccupy and divide the political/military elite. Moreover, the onset of a factional dispute over this since the summer of 2006 has coincided with a striking—and quite unexpected—recrudescence of terrorist activity. The main armed movement still active, the Salafi Group for Preaching and Combat (Groupe Salafiste pour la Prédication et le Combat, or GSPC) was previously noted for confining its attacks to the security forces and sparing civilians. Under new leaders, it has recently reverted to the indiscriminate terrorism formerly associated with the GIA while re-branding itself as a branch of Al Qaeda. With the unprecedented attack by a suicide bomber on the principal government building in central Algiers on April 11, Algerian politics has once more entered a period of uncertainty and anxiety....