Background on AQIM: a growing threat?

[davidbfpo]

A fascinating AP report on the relationship between AQ centre and their affiliate Moktar Belmoktar in the Sahara (AQIM); almost amusing. There is a very short thread on AQ's management style, AQ's M&A Strategy is a franchising network:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=11974

Here is one passage:

Your letter ... contained some amount of backbiting, name-calling and sneering. And such brotherly, official correspondence should not contain this style of language....We refrained from wading into this battle in the past out of a hope that the crooked could be straightened by the easiest and softest means. ... But the wound continued to bleed, and in fact increasingly bled, until your last letter arrived, ending any hope of stanching the wound and healing it.

AP's article:http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/05...aced-internal/

Link to letter itself:http://hosted.ap.org/specials/intera...er-english.pdf

Step forward CWOT with is analysis:http://selectedwisdom.com/?p=1088

[davidbfpo]

A rather catchy title from Reuters, but has some gems within:http://mobile.reuters.com/article/id...30809?irpc=932

This report served as the catalyst for merging threads (see Post No.1).

[davidbfpo]

Professor John Schindler of the U.S. Naval War College and blogger 20Committee, has re-Tweeted a 2012 article 'The Ugly Truth about Algeria', with many links worth pursuing:http://nationalinterest.org/commenta...t-algeria-7146

One link I peered at:http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n19/adam-sh...murder-mystery

Outside France few know of the Algerian military intelligence, DRS:

The lead agency in the fight against the Algerian mujahidin has been the country’s military intelligence service, the feared DRS. With a reputation for ruthlessness and efficiency second to none in the Arab world, the DRS is arguably the world’s most effective intelligence service when it comes to fighting Al Qaeda; it is also probably the most cold-blooded.

(Later on)To what extent the local Al Qaeda affiliate is secretly controlled by the military—as GIA and GSPC were—is an open question, but its recent record suggests that DRS influence over any Algerian extremist group is considerable.

The DRS appear in the main thread on Mali IIRC and there is a small thread on contemporary Algerian matters:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ead.php?t=2079

[davidbfpo]

Hat tip to Andrew Lebovich for noting this development in his blog commentary 'Of Mergers, MUJAO, and Mokhtar Belmokhtar', a summary and a longer 3k word piece:http://thewasat.wordpress.com/2013/0...ar-belmokhtar/ and http://thewasat.wordpress.com/2013/0...ar-belmokhtar/