Combating Terrorism State Department Can Improve Management Of East Africa Program

COMBATING TERRORISM: State Department Can Improve Management of East Africa Program

The greatest terrorist threat in East Africa currently emanates from Somalia. This country, which has lacked a stable government since 1991, created the environment that provided a safe haven for al Qaeda and led to the rise of al Shabaab. Between 1998 and 2012, when the latest data were available, there were 334 terrorist attacks by either al Qaeda or al Shabaab in East Africa, with the vast majority occurring in Somalia. The United States designated al Qaeda as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in October 1999 and designated al Shabaab as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in March 2008. Other violent organizations, such as the Lord's Resistance Army, are also active in East Africa but have not been designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations by State.

Combating terrorism :State Department can improve management of East Africa program : report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate.

Terrorism in East Africa has remained a concern of the United States since 1998, when al Qaeda bombed U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. As part of its efforts to address this threat, State launched PREACT in 2009 as a program for long-term engagement and capacity building in East Africa. PREACT -- which focuses on countering terrorist threats, including al Shabaab, an al Qaeda affiliate based in Somalia -- is managed by State's Bureau of African Affairs and provides assistance in a region composed of 12 partner countries. GAO was asked to examine PREACT, including (1) the role it plays in U.S. counterterrorism assistance to East Africa, (2) the extent to which funds allocated for PREACT since 2009 have been disbursed, and (3) the extent to which State considers key factors in managing PREACT. GAO reviewed agency documents and interviewed U.S. officials in Washington, D.C., and in Germany, Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Uganda.

The U.S. government has implemented a range of programs to counter violent extremist threats in East Africa in response to Al Qaeda's bombing of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998 and subsequent transnational terrorist activity in the region. These programs include regional and bilateral efforts, both military and civilian. The programs seek to build regional intelligence, military, law enforcement, and judicial capacities; strengthen aviation, port, and border security; stem the flow of terrorist financing; and counter the spread of extremist ideologies. Contents of this report: Overview; The Transnational Terrorist Threat in East Africa; The U.S. Response; Regional Programs; Bilateral Programs. Map and tables. A print on demand report.

Index V contains the cumulative index to the Terrorism: Commentary on Security Documents series from volume 121 to volume 140, and adds to earlier index volumes to ensure comprehensive searchability within the series. Although each volume in Terrorism: Commentary on Security Documents contains its own volume-specific index, this comprehensive index volume fully indexes the last twenty volumes in the Terrorism series, and provides far more detail than can be found in the individual volumes. The five different index formats included in this volume feature indices by subject, title, name, and year, providing readers with multiple ways to conduct research within the twenty most recently published volumes of the series.

The sixth edition of American National Security has been extensively rewritten to take into account the significant changes in national security policy in the past decade. Thorough revisions reflect a new strategic context and the challenges and opportunities faced by the United States in the early twenty-first century. Highlights include: • An examination of the current international environment and new factors affecting U.S. national security policy making• A discussion of the Department of Homeland Security and changes in the intelligence community• A survey of intelligence and national security, with special focus on security needs post-9/11• A review of economic security, diplomacy, terrorism, conventional warfare, counterinsurgency, military intervention, and nuclear deterrence in the changed international setting• An update of security issues in East Asia, South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, Russia and Central Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean• New material on globalization, transnational actors, and human security Previous editions have been widely used in undergraduate and graduate courses. -- James Schlesinger, former Secretary of Defense, from the foreword