Well before 9/11 the terrorist bombings in Niarobi and Dar es Salaam gave indications as to the severity of the threat that the then obscure organization al Qaeda posed to the west and its allies. One of the masterminds behind those attacks, Fazul Abdullah, has proven elusive. But Kenyan authorities have arrested members of a family believed to have harbored Abdullah.
Although the targets of the 1998 US Embassy bombings were putatively Americans, the vast majority of victims were Africans. Hopefully those responsible will be brought to justice, using legitimate, legal means, under local control. That the Bush administration has mismanaged the question of terrorism does not invalidate the struggle against it. That struggle will require the help of allies in Africa and elsewhere and will reqire an understanding that al Qaeda is serious in its intent.
