[allAfrica.com] Africa Opposing Terrorism With US Help, Official Tells Congress United States Department of State (Washington, DC) NEWS April 2, 2004 Posted to the web April 4, 2004 By Jim Fisher-Thompson Washington, DC State Dept.'s Wycoff cites partnership with Kenya as illustrative Africans are making inroads against international terrorism with the help of U.S. partnerships ranging from stationing a U.S. military task force in the critical Horn of Africa to training the security forces of Sahelian nations and even to assisting in anti-money laundering efforts aimed at disrupting terrorist financial networks. State Department Associate Coordinator for Counter-terrorism Karl Wycoff made that point when he told an April 1 House Africa Subcommittee hearing on "Fighting Terrorism in Africa," that "The ability of most African states to effectively participate in the campaign against terrorism is getting stronger with U.S. help." Subcommittee Chairman Ed Royce, a Republican from California, told the panel, "Africa, indeed, with resource-strapped governments unable to effectively control their territories, has been described as the 'soft underbelly' in the war on terror." According to Royce, "A good antiterrorism strategy requires a multi-track approach -- with military, diplomatic, and financial tactics. We need more resources devoted to these pursuits in Africa, including intelligence. We significantly trimmed our diplomatic presence and intelligence capabilities in Africa post-Cold War. Embassies and consulates were shuttered. This left us short of valuable intelligence about the continent." However, even with U.S. assistance, Royce said, "Looking ahead, we need to be sensitive to the fact that this is Africa's fight every bit as much as ours." One U.S.-African partnership that has paid off, said Wycoff, is the Pan Sahel Initiative (PSI), a Defense and State Department effort that has provided training and equipment to the security forces of Mauritania, Chad, Niger and Mali to better police their own borders. Recently troops from Chad, Niger and Mali cooperated with Algerian security forces to attack a terrorist organization called the Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC). "One portion of this group was cornered and forced out of Mali and promptly captured by Algerian security forces. Another turned up in Chad, where Chadian and Nigerian forces attacked and defeated this group," the official explained. Former U.S. Ambassador to South Africa Princeton Lyman agreed with the threat posed by GSPC, especially because of its ability "to set up training sites," adding, "It will not be possible for the United States to have an effective worldwide campaign against terrorism unless the threat is addressed in Africa." Wycoff touched on the Horn of Africa as a continuing trouble spot. "We are very concerned about the possibility of terrorist attacks in the Horn region, especially in Kenya and Tanzania," he said, "because, as the attacks of 9/11 showed, al Qaeda will continue to plan and carry out attacks against a target if its initial efforts failed or were only partially successful. Despite the construction of new embassy facilities in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, and continuing efforts of the host nations and their neighbors, the terrorism threat in the region remains high." An answer to the problem, said Lyman, was the Combined Joint Task Force -- Horn of Africa (CJTF), which consists of U.S. ground and naval forces positioned in Djibouti. He added, "The U.S. has responded fairly aggressively in this part of Africa. The head of the CJTF recently reported arrests of members of terrorist organizations in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Kenya and Djibouti." Lyman said, overall "President Bush has provided a strong impetus to counterterrorism activities [but] the U.S. will have to provide much more support, however, to maintain this momentum." Karl Wycoff pointed to Kenya as a good example "of the many types of training and assistance provided to front-line states under the State Department's Anti- Terrorism Assistance (ATA) program established in 1983." Basically a law enforcement program, he explained ATA includes: detection and disarming bombs, post-blast investigation, VIP protection, crisis management exercises and hostage negotiating. Since ATA began in Kenya in 1989, the program has used over $4 million to train 594 law enforcement personnel. The ATA program is part of a larger U.S partnership effort, called the East Africa Counter-terrorism Initiative (EACTI) announced in June 2003. Representative Donald Payne (Democrat of New Jersey) hailed the initiative saying, "I applaud the U.S. pledges of $100 million for the East African Counter-terrorism Initiative and around $30 million for Kenya. Let us always remember to take a regional approach to terrorism in the Horn." Wycoff said EACTI has proven successful in training law enforcement officers to go after corrupt practices in which terrorism can thrive. It also includes "an education program to counter extremist influence and a robust outreach program. "Kenya's commitment to this effort [EACTI] is reflected in its passage of anti- corruption legislation, its efforts to pass counterterrorism legislation, the recent creation of an Anti-Terrorism Police Unit, establishment of a National Security Advisory Committee to provide policy guidance to its CT structures, and the opening early this year of a National Counter-Terrorism Center," the official told the lawmakers. On the financial front, another innovative program Wycoff mentioned was the interagency Terrorist Finance Working Group (TFWG), which is "working closely with Kenyan officials to develop a comprehensive anti-money laundering/ counterterrorist financing regime in Kenya." He emphasized, "Curbing the flow of money to terrorists is important not only as part of the global war against terrorism but also to help countries protect their own citizens from attacks by groups operating locally." (The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)   =============================================================================   Copyright © 2004 United States Department of State. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). =============================================================================