The U.S. Believes that Islamic Terrorists Have Been Using Spain as a Logistical Base

al-Qaeda has become stronger in the Maghreb regions, according to the State Department.

Spain is one of the main transit points for Islamic terrorism because of its proximity to Africa, its lack of formal borders with the rest of the European Union and its large Maghribian immigrant population, according to the latest annual report from the U.S. State Department on terrorism, a document issued yesterday that analyzes terrorist tendencies in 2008, and confirms al-Qaeda’s reinforcement in Northern Africa and the rise of radical feeling among European youth, who are more and more disenchanted with their social and labor conditions.

“Al-Qaeda remained the greatest terrorist threat to the United States and its partners?,” the antiterrorist policy coordinator of the State Department, Ronal Schlider, explained yesterday in a press conference.

“No one country, no one organization can alone defeat terrorism. The global threat that we face requires a global strategy”, Mr. Schlider added. al-Qaeda´s weakness in Iraq and the siege it suffers on the Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier have led to rearmament of the organization in different locations around the globe, including Northern Africa.

In this report, there is testimony regarding consolidation and growth of terrorist groups in an area referred to by the State Department as the Trans-Sahara. “Remote areas of the Sahel and Maghreb regions in Africa serve as terrorist safe havens because of limited government control in sparsely populated regions,” says the document. al-Qaeda has become strong in Islamic Maghreb and carries out suicide attacks against Algeria. Last August alone, they murdered 79 people in that country. Their activities have recently extended to Mauritania and Mali.

Europe remains a target as well. Among European countries, one stands out: “Spain remained an important transit and logistical base for terrorist organizations operating in Western Europe. Its geographical location, large population of immigrants from North Africa and the ease of travel to other countries in Europe made Spain a strategic crossroads for international terrorist groups.”

Moreover, the State Department praises blows levied by the Spanish police against various terrorists in 2008: “The Ministry of Interior detained 65 suspected Islamist terrorists,” it explains.

The report adds that Islamic terrorism is similar to a “global insurgency” which feeds more and more from young immigrants in Europe. “We saw increasing evidence of terrorists and extremists manipulating the grievances of alienated youth or immigrant populations, and then cynically exploiting those grievances to subvert legitimate authority and create unrest.” With the current economic crisis and unemployment on the rise, experts claim that this dissatisfaction, the breeding ground of terrorist feelings, will only grow.