We know they are preparing ..... but are we?
Here again is the lethal legacy of Obama's foreign policy, the catastrophic consequences of which the American people are still painfully unaware, thanks to an enemedia whose sole goal is to prop up and whitewash Obama's failed presidency.
Under Obama we have lost regions, countries -- whole swaths of Africa and the Middle East to Islamic rule.
"Al-Qaida carves out own country, prepare for global jihad" AP, December 31, 2012
Mali » Islamic fighters dig bunkers, train and stock weapons as they prepare for global jihad.
The Associated Press
Mopti, Mali • Deep inside caves, in
remote desert bases, in the escarpments and cliff faces of northern
Mali, Islamic fighters are burrowing into the earth, erecting a
formidable set of defenses to protect what has essentially become
al-Qaida’s new country.
They have used the bulldozers, earth movers
and Caterpillar machines left behind by fleeing construction crews to
dig what residents and local officials describe as an elaborate network
of tunnels, trenches, shafts and ramparts. In just one case, inside a
cave large enough to drive trucks into, they have stored up to 100 drums
of gasoline, guaranteeing their fuel supply in the face of a foreign
intervention, according to experts.
"Al-Qaida never owned Afghanistan," said former
United Nations diplomat Robert Fowler, a Canadian kidnapped and held
for 130 days by al-Qaida’s local chapter, whose fighters now control the
main cities in the north. "They do own northern Mali."
Al-Qaida’s affiliate in Africa has been a
shadowy presence for years in the forests and deserts of Mali, a country
hobbled by poverty and a relentless cycle of hunger. In recent months,
the terror syndicate and its allies have taken advantage of political
instability within the country to push out of their hiding place and
into the towns, taking over an enormous territory which they are using
to stock arms, train forces and prepare for global jihad.
The catalyst for the Islamic fighters was a
military coup nine months ago that transformed Mali from a once-stable
nation to the failed state it is today. On March 21, disgruntled
soldiers invaded the presidential palace. The fall of the nation’s
democratically elected government at the hands of junior officers
destroyed the military’s command-and-control structure, creating the
vacuum which allowed a mix of rebel groups to move in.
With no clear instructions from their
higher-ups, the humiliated soldiers left to defend those towns tore off
their uniforms, piled into trucks and beat a retreat as far as Mopti,
roughly in the center of Mali. They abandoned everything north of this
town to the advancing rebels, handing them an area that stretches over
more than 240,000 square miles. It’s a territory larger than Texas or
France — and it’s almost exactly the size of Afghanistan.
Turbaned fighters now control all the major
towns in the north, carrying out amputations in public squares like the
Taliban did. Just as in Afghanistan, they are flogging women for not
covering up. Since taking control of Timbuktu, they have destroyed seven
of the 16 mausoleums listed as world heritage sites.
The area under their rule is mostly desert and
sparsely populated, but analysts say that due to its size and the
hostile nature of the terrain, rooting out the extremists here could
prove even more difficult than it did in Afghanistan. Mali’s former
president has acknowledged, diplomatic cables show, that the country
cannot patrol a frontier twice the length of the border between the
United States and Mexico.
Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, known as AQIM,
operates not just in Mali, but in a corridor along much of the northern
Sahel. This 4,300-mile-long ribbon of land runs across the widest part
of Africa, and includes sections of Mauritania, Niger, Algeria, Libya,
Burkina Faso and Chad.
"One could come up with a conceivable
containment strategy for the Swat Valley," said Africa expert Peter
Pham, an adviser to the U.S. military’s African command center,
referring to the region of Pakistan where the Pakistan Taliban have been
based. "There’s no containment strategy for the Sahel, which runs from
the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea."
Earlier this year, the 15 nations in West
Africa, including Mali, agreed on a proposal for the military to take
back the north, and sought backing from the United Nations. Earlier this
month, the Security Council authorized the intervention but imposed
certain conditions, including training Mali’s military, which is accused
of serious human rights abuses since the coup. Diplomats say the
intervention will likely not happen before September of 2013.
In the meantime, the Islamists are getting
ready, according to elected officials and residents in Kidal, Timbuktu
and Gao, including a day laborer hired by al-Qaida’s local chapter to
clear rocks and debris for one of their defenses. They spoke on
condition of anonymity out of fear for their safety at the hands of the
Islamists, who have previously accused those who speak to reporters of
espionage.
The al-Qaida affiliate, which became part of
the terror network in 2006, is one of three Islamist groups in northern
Mali. The others are the Movement for the Unity and Jihad in West
Africa, or MUJAO, based in Gao, and Ansar Dine, based in Kidal. Analysts
agree that there is considerable overlap between the groups, and that
all three can be considered sympathizers, even extensions, of al-Qaida.
The Islamic fighters have stolen equipment from
construction companies, including more than $11 million worth from a
French company called SOGEA-SATOM, according to Elie Arama, who works
with the European Development Fund. The company had been contracted to
build a European Union-financed highway in the north between Timbuktu
and the village of Goma Coura. An employee of SOGEA-SATOM in Bamako
declined to comment.
The official from Kidal said his constituents
have reported seeing Islamic fighters with construction equipment riding
in convoys behind 4-by-4 trucks draped with their signature black flag.
His contacts among the fighters, including friends from secondary
school, have told him they have created two bases, around 120 and 180
miles north of Kidal, in the austere, rocky desert.
The first base is occupied by al-Qaida’s local
fighters in the hills of Teghergharte, a region the official compared to
Afghanistan’s Tora Bora.
