Foreign Policy Blogs

Mali and the al-Qaeda Threat

Is Mali ripe for radical Islamist terrorist exploitation? That is certainly the fear of many in the US and Britain, as well as in Mali itself. A group known as “al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb” has been active in Algeria, and the fear is that the organization plans to expand outward toward Mali. Andrew Harding of the BBC went to Timbuktu to see for himself. The locals seem pretty sanguine, dismissive, even, though American tourism has dried up as a result of US fears.

 
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Comments (2)

  1. chaibou Tuesday - 16 / 02 / 2010 Reply
    terorist threat should be stoped by all governments and peoples of the world, not only by governments.
  2. chaibou Tuesday - 16 / 02 / 2010 Reply
    criminals should be brought to justice and punishments if they found guilty, not false allegations agaisnt some innocent individuals and groups!

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Author

Derek Catsam
Derek Catsam

Derek Catsam is an associate professor of history at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. Derek writes about race and politics in the United States and Africa, sports, and terrorism. He is currently working on books on bus boycotts in the United States and South Africa in the 1940s and 1950s, the Freedom Rides, and South African resistance politics in the 1980s. He has lived, worked, and travelled extensively throughout southern Africa. He is also a lifelong sports fan, with the Boston Red Sox as his first true love. He was one of about three dozen people to write books about the 2004 World Champion Red Sox, and the result is Bleeding Red: A Red Sox Fan's Diary of the 2004 Season. He writes about politics, sports, travel, pop culture, and just about anything else that comes to mind.

Areas of Focus:
Africa; Zimbabwe; South Africa; Apartheid

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