Algeria: April 10, 2004

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While the Islamic radicals have been defeated, the country is still run by a few hundred families, most led by someone who was prominent in the fight to force out the French colonial government during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Corruption and inept government have created a weak economy and 25 percent unemployment. If president Bouteflika  and his cronies don't clean up the corruption and get the economy going, there will soon be more, non-Islamic, rebel movements emerging. Bouteflika has brought in foreign investment and made decisions that have created more jobs. But not enough to really make a dent in the unemployment. 

Several hundred Islamic radicals are still around in the northern part of the country. The population is hostile to the Islamic radicals, which makes it difficult for the radicals to carry out terrorist operations in the cities. But the threat is there.

 

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