September 14, 2006: While North Africa has been the source of many Islamic terrorists, the governments there have been very cooperative in fighting outfits like al Qaeda. North African nations had problems with Islamic terrorism before al Qaeda showed up. In fact, al Qaeda became a global menace largely because members of the Moslem Brotherhood, fleeing successful Egyptian counter-terrorism efforts in the 1990s, ended up in Afghanistan, and joined forces with Osama bin Laden, making al Qaeda a much more effective organization.
The Moslem Brotherhood is still in Egypt, as a less radical political movement. But other Islamic radical groups have appeared in Egypt, and elsewhere in North Africa. Even Libya, long the supporter of numerous Islamic radical groups, now has local Islamic terrorists trying to overthrow reformed terrorist supporter, and still dictator, Colonel Muammar Kaddafy. As a result, Kaddafy and his intelligence service, has been an excellent source of information on Islamic terrorists. Kaddafy's minions have decades of experience with Islamic terrorists, and that expertise is proving quite useful.
Algeria has been another excellent source, mainly because so many Algerian Islamic radicals are found in Europe, North America and places like Iraq. Morocco and Egypt have long been battling their own Islamic terrorists, and have been warning the West for years that the problem could spread. For these countries, September 11, 2001 had a silver lining in that now the West was paying attention.