Algérie Presse Service (APS) – November 19, 2010

Washington – The United States wish to “deepen” their relations with Algeria in the fight against terrorism, because these relations are “absolutely essential”, said the Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the U.S. State Department, Mr. Daniel Benjamin. The U.S. official was speaking at a press conference in Washington, during which he reviewed U.S. counterterrorism policy and presented his views on some of the aspects of this scourge.

Replying to a question by APS on the state of counterterrorism cooperation between Algeria and the United States, particularly after the visit he made to Algeria last July, Mr. Benjamin stressed first of all that he had had “an excellent visit in Algeria” and declared that he “highly appreciate(s) the work done by the Algerian officials in charge of counterterrorism and law-enforcement,” adding that the United States considers this cooperation “as an absolutely essential relation.” Mr. Benjamin said also that “Algeria has a great political willingness to fight against terrorism and a great experience that we would like to acquire.” In this respect, the U.S. Coordinator for Counterterrorism said that the United States “is seeking to deepen this relation, so that we are able to deal with shared threats. I think that this (cooperation) was a very positive engagement that we wish to deepen in the years to come.”

Furthermore, in his introductory remarks, Mr. Benjamin has largely discussed the issue of payment of ransoms to terrorist groups and said that “Algeria, the United Kingdom, and the United States are among the governments that refuse to pay a ransom for hostages.” On this point, he mentioned the case of Africa and namely the Sahel region where, he said, the AQMI (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) terrorist group “shows resilience and an aptitude to mobilize substantial financial resources thanks to ransoms paid.”

In this respect, the U.S. official declared that “the United States has a major multinational program for counterterrorism partnership capacity-building in the trans-Saharan region, to which we have devoted up to 150 million dollars per year.” He added that “the fact that AQMI has recourse to kidnappings for ransom to insure its survival underlines the urgency to dry up this source of financing,” underlining at the same time that “something needs to be done to help countries like Mali, Mauritania, and others in the region.” On this last point, Mr. Benjamin stressed that “reaching wide agreement on a no-concession policy by rich countries would be a good start” to implement this policy.

Clearly alluding to some European countries which continue to pay ransoms to terrorist groups, the U.S. Coordinator for Counterterrorism said that, obviously, not paying ransoms “has real costs” in terms of loss of human lives. However, he insisted, “terrorist groups can kill hostages, but eventually if they realize that countries are not paying any ransom, frequency of abduction of nationals (of those countries) will diminish.”

Replying to a question on whether the U.S. position and its arguments against payment of ransoms could convince other countries to adopt the same position, Mr. Benjamin recalled that “the area of activity of AQMI was originally along the Algerian coastline. Thanks to the very efficient work done by the Algerian authorities, its (AQMI) operations have largely declined in that area.” Consequently, he said, AQMI sent a number of its elements to the Sahel, where they recruited a few people in that region and now those elements are abducting people for ransom, “acting either individually by taking hostages themselves or by working with other criminal groups who abduct people for money.”

Mr. Benjamin added that “it is fair to say that payment of ransoms constitutes the primary source of revenue for AQMI. And that is what helps them going (…) with the multiples millions of dollars that were paid to them. This is deeply, deeply worrisome,” said the U.S. official. He added that “while real progress has been achieved by drying up sources of financing of terrorism around the world” through closure of bank accounts and control of international financial transactions, “ransoms are different” from other sources of financing. “Therefore, this is a real issue (…) and we are deeply concerned about that,” he said.

The Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the U.S. State Department reiterated that “the United States is aware that it is difficult for countries to adopt and accept this policy of non-payment of ransom.” “This is a very, very difficult position. But I think that that it is clear that once you pay a ransom, you can expect that two or three other nationals will probably be abducted later, given the efficiency of the tactic,” he noted. In this respect, Mr. Benjamin underlined that “Algeria, in particular, has been very frank on this issue and I think that we would all do well to take its message into account.”

Replying to a question by another reporter on whether the Moroccan military escalation on the Sahrawi refugee camps would have repercussions in terms of terrorism in the region, Mr. Benjamin said that “while the U.S. is concerned that Al Qaeda in the Maghreb may be able to expand its operations, frankly, we do not think that this expansion would reach that region of the Maghreb,” adding that “there is no evidence” of that probability.