Al Qaeda's African offensive

Sen. Bill Nelson:

A prime minister's office scarred by a recent al-Qaeda bomb attack. Families separated while fleeing from genocidal murderers in their hometowns. And employees of an international company kidnapped from a heavily guarded oil-rich area.

No, this isn't Iraq or the Middle East -- it's an impoverished region of Africa where chaos is breeding a new brand of Islamic terrorism allied with Osama bin Laden.

Just recently, a top U.S. State Department official warned Congress that "the threat from al-Qaeda's presence in the region is significant, very dangerous and potentially growing. . . ."

Only days before that testimony, I went to Ethiopia, Chad, Nigeria and Algeria, where I saw for myself how terrorists can take advantage of poverty, violence and disorder.

Al-Qaeda and extremist sympathizers already are in Somalia, including suspects in the deadly 1998 attacks on our embassies and the bombing of a hotel in Kenya in 2002. American military forces are conducting strategic strikes aimed at these international thugs.

The chaos and violence have created an ideal base for terrorist networks, while other poverty-plagued African nations are struggling to keep out al-Qaeda and similar groups.

In Nigeria, President Umaru Yar'Adua took office after an election our State Department called "deeply flawed." He's dealing with rampant corruption. The majority of the people there live on less than a dollar a day, and the average life expectancy is less than 50 years. The northern part of the country is home to millions of Islamic fundamentalists seeking to increase their influence.

Yar'Adua also must provide security for the Niger Delta and the oil-production facilities that serve as his country's economic engine. The United States depends on the delivery of Nigerian oil, importing 2.4 million barrels per day.

While I was there, a rebel militia in the oil-rich delta kidnapped 11 foreign workers, including women and children, from a guarded compound. Several more kidnappings followed over the next 48 hours. A homegrown militant movement is responsible for the lawlessness. But it is just that kind of chaos that terrorists could exploit to target pipelines critical to the world's oil market.

Although the attacks in Nigeria haven't been tied to al-Qaeda, the same cannot be said in Algeria. I met with Algerian Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem in his government office, which still bears the scars of a terrorist attack just two months ago. That bombing marked the unwelcome debut of al-Qaeda's newest African franchise: al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

Even worse, we face the challenges of poverty and starvation in Ethiopia, where millions of children are chronically malnourished. In addition, the ongoing genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan has left hundreds of thousands of refugees homeless, and the violence is spilling across the border into Chad.

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Nelson has some points, but his suggestion that poverty breeds terrorism is deeply flawed. Al Qaeda terrorism come from religious bigotry and ethnic hatred. That is its driving force. Democrats always perceive poverty to be the cause of the effect, but there are millions of poor people in the world who are not terrorist or interested in terrorism. Certainly Saudi Arabia is not a poverty stricken country, but its preachers of hate have been the root cause of terrorism around the world.