US and counter-terrorism in east Africa

From Homeland Security News Wire:

U.S. readies counter-terror offensive in east Africa

June 7, 2012

Yesterday the U.S. State Department announced rewards totaling $33 million for information about the location of seven key leaders of Somalia’s al Shabaab Islamic militant group, seeking for the first time to target the top leadership of that organization; the increasingly precise, and increasingly lethal, U.S. drone campaign against al Qaeda and al Qaeda-affiliated organizations in Pakistan, a campaign which has killed hundreds of Islamic militants and dozens of their leaders, owes its success to one thing: good intelligence; the United States is now increasing its anti-terrorist intelligence collection efforts in Africa

Somalia's al Shabaab islamists are now on U.S. radar // Source: afrika-news.org

The increasingly precise, and increasingly lethal, U.S. drone campaign against al Qaeda and al Qaeda-affiliated organizations in Pakistan has killed hundreds of Islamic militants and dozens of their leaders. Just one example: after Osama bin laden was killed by U.S. Special Forces last spring, there were five leaders in al Qaeda’s top echelons who were considered as potential replacement. Four of them have been taken out by the United States since last August.

The drone campaign against militants in Pakistan, a campaign which began under the Bush administration but the Obama administration has intensified and expanded the campaign dramatically, owes its success to one thing: good intelligence. The U.S. intelligence services, relying on both SIGINT and human intelligence, have been able to breach al Qaeda’s tight security arrangements, compromise the organization’s communications, and penetrate al Qaeda’s cells at the village level....

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