August 19, 2011:  Two recent terror attacks east of the capital, claimed by al Qaeda, were more noise than substance. The point appears to be that government efforts to destroy al Qaeda in northern Algeria have failed. Not so, those efforts have not finished, and won’t as long as there is so much government corruption and economic stagnation. The army and police heavily patrol the mountainous areas east of the capital, long the hideout for al Qaeda, and, for centuries before, rebels of all sorts. In the far south, the army has increased its activity in the Saharan Desert wastelands that al Qaeda now uses as a refuge, and waypoint for the drug shipments the Islamic terrorists now guard for a living.

August 17, 2011: An Islamic terrorist roadside bomb, 100 kilometers east of the capital (in Tizi Ouzou) , killed a driver for the police, and a bus driver.

August 14, 2011: A suicide truck bomb hit a police station in Tizi Ouzou (100 kilometers east of the capital) before dawn, killing the bomber and wounding 14 policemen and 15 civilians. Al Qaeda later took credit.

August 3, 2011: The navy has ordered an amphibious assault ship, which carries a battalion of infantry, 36 vehicles, three landing craft and up to eight helicopters.