Algeria: October 26, 2002

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Algeria is calling for the world's nations to agree on exactly what "terrorism" is. Algeria is finally getting the upper hand on Islamic radicals who have waged a ten year terror campaign that has left over 100,000 dead. The terrorists managed to keep going by having key leaders living in exile in Europe, and raising money there. Because the European governments did not recognize the Islamic radical's activities as terrorism, they left the terror organizations alone and, in effect providing bases for the Algerian terrorists. Now that Algerian Islamic radicals have been revealed as part of al Qaeda, the policies of the European nations are seen as foolish, and deadly for innocent civilians.  While it's long been customary for nations to give sanctuary to rebels from neighboring nations (to provide some diplomatic leverage), the European nations were doing so because of a liberal policy on political asylum. This forces the Europeans (and other democracies) to confront the meaning of "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter."

 

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