Wüstenschiff

The Trans Sahara Counter-Terrorism Initiative: U.S. takes terror fight to Africa's 'Wild West'
by Jason Motlagh,
December 30, 2005
San Francisco Chronicle

Abidjan, Ivory Coast -- The U.S. government will spend $500 million over five years on an expanded program to secure a vast new front in its global war on terrorism -- the Sahara Desert.

But critics say the region is not a terrorist zone, as some senior U.S. military officers assert, and they warn that a heavy-handed military and social campaign that reinforces authoritarian regimes in North and West Africa could fuel radicalism where it scarcely exists .....