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Terrorism Bulletin Says Highlighting Al Qaeda Racism Could Deter African Recruits

Pat McMahon Contributor
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A National Counter Terrorism Center terrorism bulletin from October 2009 makes the argument that highlighting al Qaeda racism could deter black African recruits, thus shedding a light on a recent charge by the White House that al Qaeda is racist, as first reported by ABC News earlier this month.

The Oct. 19, 2009 “National Terrorism Bulletin,” obtained by ABC News, is headlined “Highlighting AQIM’s Racism Could Deter Black African Recruits.”

AQIM is an acronym for Al Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb, a terrorist group based in Algeria that the NCTC says was “originally formed in 1998 as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), a faction of the Armed Islamic Group, which was the largest and most active terrorist group in Algeria. The GSPC was renamed in January 2007 after the group officially joined al-Qa‘ida in September 2006. The GSPC had close to 30,000 members at its height, but the Algerian Government’s counterterrorism efforts have reduced the group’s ranks to fewer than 1,000.”

Full story: Terrorism Bulletin Says Highlighting Al Qaeda Racism Could Deter African Recruits – Political Punch