The North African Franchise: AQIM's Threat to U.S. Security; Strategic Insights, v. 8, issue 5 (December 2009)
Al Qaeda of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is a growing and evolving North African franchise of Al Qaeda. While the group carries out a significant number of attacks within the Sahel, they have not executed attacks in the United States or Europe. There is significant research concerning the historical development of AQIM . However, there is a dearth of literature on the threat that this group poses to the United States. The purpose of this paper is to fill this research gap and evaluate the threat that AQIM poses to US security. My analysis will demonstrate that AQIM’s operations in Europe and Iraq are a security threat to US facilities and personnel. Moreover, this paper will demonstrate that AQIM has both the intent and capability to conduct attacks against US targets in Europe, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Al Qaeda in the Maghreb: The "Newest" Front in the War on Terror
The recent formation of al Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM) could be interpreted as the opening of a new battlefield in the cause of international jihad. Such a front, however, is not unprecedented. Algerian veterans of the 1980s Afghan campaign against the Soviets returned home and played a key role in the Islamist insurgency. Composed mainly of Algerian “Afghans,” the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) committed unspeakable atrocities in the 1990s.1 Moroccan and Algerian émigré communities in Europe, moreover, have played important roles in financing for al Qaeda and a variety of North African Salafist groups.2 Given its consolidation of North African Salafist terrorist groups under one umbrella, al Qaeda in the Maghreb does present substantial security challenges for North African and European governments. Terrorism in the Mediterranean region has grown recently because of numerous factors. By far the most important have been the growing fundamentalism of some Maghrebi communities in Europe, the failures of the jihadist movement (most notably in Algeria), and the financial largesse provided to jihadist terror organizations by Islamist civil society and criminal
Marine and Hydrokinetic Technology Development Risk Management Framework
Over the past decade, the global marine and hydrokinetic (MHK) industry has suffered a number of serious technological and commercial setbacks. To help reduce the risks of industry failures and advance the development of new technologies, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) developed an MHK Risk Management Framework. By addressing uncertainties, the MHK Risk Management Framework increases the likelihood of successful development of an MHK technology. It covers projects of any technical readiness level (TRL) or technical performance level (TPL) and all risk types (e.g. technological risk, regulatory risk, commercial risk) over the development cycle. This framework is intended for the development and deployment of a single MHK technology—not for multiple device deployments within a plant. This risk framework is intended to meet DOE’s risk management expectations for the MHK technology research and development efforts of the Water Power Program (see Appendix A). It also provides an overview of other relevant risk management tools and documentation.1 This framework emphasizes design and risk reviews as formal gates to ensure risks are managed throughout the technology development cycle. Section 1 presents the recommended technology development cycle, Sections 2 and 3 present tools to assess themore » TRL and TPL of the project, respectively. Section 4 presents a risk management process with design and risk reviews for actively managing risk within the project, and Section 5 presents a detailed description of a risk registry to collect the risk management information into one living document. Section 6 presents recommendations for collecting and using lessons learned throughout the development process.« less