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As a member of Mauritania's slave-owning class, Abdel Nasser Ould Ethmane could have had anything he wanted as a present for his circumcision ceremony: a toy, money, a camel, or, as his brother would choose, a bicycle. But the 7-year-old wanted something more sinister. He chose Yebawa Ould Keihel, a young boy with skin the color of coal. At that moment, Abdel became a slave master. It's an experience that's common here in Mauritania, a vast country in West Africa's Sahara Desert where activists and the United Nations estimate 10% to 20% of people are enslaved -- usually dark-skinned people...

AL-QAEDA IN LIBYA: A PROFILEA Report Prepared by the Federal Research Division, Library of Congress under an Interagency Agreement with the Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office’s Irregular Warfare Support Program August 2012

I don’t get it. Why would the Foreign Policy President, who supported the revolutions in Libya and Egypt, not want to talk about that? I thought he likes talking about foreign policy. Weeks before the presidential election, President Barack Obama’s administration faces mounting opposition from within the ranks of U.S. intelligence agencies over what career officers say is a “cover up” of intelligence information about terrorism in North Africa.Intelligence held back from senior officials and the public includes numerous classified reports revealing clear Iranian support for jihadists throughout the tumultuous North Africa and Middle East region, as well as notably...

Small teams of special operations forces arrived at American embassies throughout North Africa in the months before militants launched the fiery attack that killed the U.S. ambassador in Libya. The soldiers' mission: Set up a network that could quickly strike a terrorist target or rescue a hostage. But the teams had yet to do much counterterrorism work in Libya, though the White House signed off a year ago on the plan to build the new military task force in the region and the advance teams had been there for six months, according to three U.S. counterterror officials and a former...

As Tuareg rebels battle radical Islamists with heavy weapons for control of the northern Mali city of Gao, Mali and the other 15 nations of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are planning a military offensive designed to drive both groups out of northern Mali in an effort to re-impose order in the region and prevent the six-month old conflict from destabilizing the entire region. So far, however, operational planning has not been detailed enough to gain the approval of the UN Security Council for authorization of a Chapter Seven military intervention, leaving ECOWAS and the African Union...

Armored vehicles rumbled through the deserted streets of Bamako, Mali, last week, while the rattle of fire from assault rifles could be heard coming from the western part of the capital, especially around the presidential guard's barracks and in the city's slums. .................................................. Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia has called the situation "very, very worrying." Mhand Berkouk, director of the Echaab Center for Strategic Studies, in Algiers, fears an "Afghanization of the entire Sahel region." Berkouk believes Azawad could become a base for terrorists from around the world.

Compare and contrast: Biden in Israel and Susan Rice in Sudan Joe Biden was in Israel and a few housing permits were issued for East Jerusalem, resulting in an uproar at the White House. Condemnations and recriminations followed. There was a tongue-lashing over a minor issue. Susan Rice was in Sudan to celebrate the coming independence of Southern Sudan. Sudan, headed by a genocidal dictator (Omar al-Bashir) whose case has been referred to the International Criminal Court, invades a disputed town between the borders of the nation-to-be and Sudan while Susan Rice and other representatives of the UN Security Council...

The African Liberation Forces of Mauritania Speak on Slavery and Genocide Tuesday, 17 October 2006 The African Liberation Forces of Mauritania Speak on Slavery and Genocide in the Sahel, not only to free Mauritanians from racism and slavery but also to build a more democratic country. The Arab-dominated regime does not want to do anything to bring peace in Mauritania. We cannot really talk about democracy when 120,000 refugees are left behind, and we cannot talk about democracy when people are enslaved. Before organizing elections in Mauritania, we must free those who are still enslaved, and bring the refugees back....

A top US general has said al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, will try to relocate to the Horn of Africa if Iraq is stabilised. Major-General Douglas Lute cited Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Ethiopia as likely "safe havens" for jihadists.He said that "vast ungoverned spaces" of east Africa were likely to appeal to Zarqawi's insurgents as operations in Iraq and Afghanistan become difficult. US troops based in Djibouti already aim to stop infiltration from the Red Sea. "There will come a time when Zarqawi will face too much resistance in Iraq and will move on," Maj Gen Lute said....

How many of the mushrooming number of terrorism experts now on TV, or journalists pretending to compete with them in their instant expertise, have heard, let alone know about, what is going on in the Sahel? Or that there is actually something called Sahel that is important in the fight against Islamist terrorists? The answer is: depressingly few -- and that is good for us. Indeed, if more weres known, we would immediately hear the screams of human rights fundamentalists, from Amnesty International to Jimmy Carter, demanding a cut off of aid to less-than-Jeffersonian regimes in such exotic places as...