3 May 2005
Lagos — A United States intelligence expert and former ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Princeton Lyman, has said that after the dreaded Middle East terrorist group, Al-Qaeda was chased out of Afghanistan, it has shifted base to Nigeria in which its influence is growing by the day.
Lyman in a report on the American television news station, CBN News, quoted a United Nations investigation which he said uncovered al-Qaeda's surreptitous training and building bases in Nigeria in support of his conclusion that the country is a natural target for terrorists seeking to expand their operations.
Lyman, said, "You have 60 million or more Muslims in Nigeria. It is the most populous state, and it is a country in which there has been a long history of religious tension, sometimes well-managed, sometimes not well-managed. If you wanted to target a state in West Africa, that's the one you target."
The CBN noted that in a video message broadcast on the Arab television station al-Jazeera, Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden singled out Nigeria, because of its close ties with Washington, as a country worthy of jihad -- making the threat of a terrorist attack on Nigerian soil a very real possibility.
Lyman noted: "...and that in itself is very damaging to international interests."
In justifying why Nigeria is a potential area for al-Qaeda to show interest in, the report states that Nigeria is Africa's leading oil producer and also one of the top sources for oil for the United States.
America imports as much oil from Africa, as it does from Saudi Arabia and the thirst for African oil is expected to double in the years to come.
Lyman said, "Twenty-percent of the new oil coming on the market over the next decade is going to come from West Africa, and U.S. companies alone are going to be investing about 50 billion dollars up and down West Africa. Nigeria is a major part of that."
It is further believed that slashing the West's oil arteries has become a major part of Al Qaeda's terror tactics since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on World Trade Centre, New York and other places
US security experts say that by hitting oil targets overseas, terrorists can hit the US economically.
In the last 12 months, al Qaeda-linked groups have launched a series of attacks on several oil-rich countries, including Nigeria.
CIA's new director, while briefing the congress after his appointment had expressed concern that the allure of fanatical Islam is attracting an alarming number of people from Nigeria's Muslim community. The rise of religious extremism is threatening to turn Africa's most populous nation into a breeding ground for international terrorists.
"As you know, you don't need a large amount of people," Lyman observed. "You need 'seams' within populations to exploit frustrations that have been going on for a long time.'
Intelligence experts, he said, have warned that, for a long time, the U.S. has ignored Nigeria on almost every level, including intelligence gathering.
Author Douglas Farah has documented al Qaeda's growing sanctuary in Africa. "The U.S. intelligence involvement in West Africa, particularly after the collapse of the Cold War, was minimal," said Farah.
"The Africa, or the sub-Saharan African bureaus of the CIA, were cut to the bone. They lost two-thirds of their station in West Africa, and the stations that remained were staffed at less than half the level they had been before. So you are talking about a huge cut in our ability to monitor these areas of the world," he said.
Farah says that is one reason why U.S. intelligence failed to anticipate the stunning spread of radical Islam across Africa.
He added, "but particularly in West Africa. The Wahabbi strain of Islam, which preaches hatred to the West and is largely funded by Saudi charities, moved in very rapidly in the early 90s. And it is something that people are only now discovering, and only now starting to focus on in a very minimal way."
Paul Marshall, a human rights advocate, says it is Saudi-sponsored Wahhabi strain of Islam, that is fueling much of the Islamic fervor in Nigeria.
Marshall said, "You go there and you'll find the Saudis, and you find the Sudanese there, you find the Libyans there, you find Syrians there, Pakistanis there, and it's all part of a world-wide Islamization."
It is believed that to try and checkmate the spread of Islamic fundamentalism, the Pentagon is deploying huge amounts of resources to intelligence-gathering in Africa.
Washington has sent U.S. Marines and Special Forces to train local armies in several countries where terror threats are believed to be growing. General Charles Wald who oversees most of Africa for the U.S. military's European Command once said, "We are developing information sharing -- some people might call it intelligence -- but we are doing that, and we are helping train those countries to do a better job of actually policing their borders."
Al-Qaeda hit the consciousness of Nigerians after the group led by bin Laden successfully hit American interests including the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon, headquarters of US defence complex by hijacking commercial passenger planes which were crashed into the target areas on September 11, 2001.
Over 35,000 lives were lost in the attacks. Attempts by the US to arrest bin Laden had been unsuccessful though the US had disorganised his operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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