{"id":119507,"date":"2020-11-13T14:15:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-13T14:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sahara-occidental.net\/2020\/11\/the-case-for-redirecting-us-aid-for-the-polisario-run-camps-in-algeria-part-iii\/"},"modified":"2020-11-13T14:15:00","modified_gmt":"2020-11-13T14:15:00","slug":"the-case-for-redirecting-us-aid-for-the-polisario-run-camps-in-algeria-part-iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/xnalgrt.cluster100.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/2020\/11\/13\/the-case-for-redirecting-us-aid-for-the-polisario-run-camps-in-algeria-part-iii\/","title":{"rendered":"The case for redirecting US aid for the Polisario-run camps in Algeria (Part III)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-9okykmcIc6Y\/X66U05BgPiI\/AAAAAAAAA2s\/AznmQRCp9HoRuLLgP7hvo9jO6Lruqw1RACLcBGAsYHQ\/s593\/Rosella-urru3.png\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"350\" data-original-width=\"593\" src=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-9okykmcIc6Y\/X66U05BgPiI\/AAAAAAAAA2s\/AznmQRCp9HoRuLLgP7hvo9jO6Lruqw1RACLcBGAsYHQ\/s16000\/Rosella-urru3.png\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>Sept. 29, 2011&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mauritanian President reports that AQIM and other militants have acquired Libyan arms, including surface-to-air missiles. xxxiv&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Sept. 20, 2011&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">US terrorism expert Yonah Alexander, International Center for Terrorism Studies, says the \u201cPolisario is intensifying activities to transport and smuggle illegal drugs in both North Africa and Europe.  The Polisario is working with Al Qaida in both the drug and weapons trade.\u201dxxxv&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Sept. 15, 2011&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Malian security forces hunt for rival gangs of drug smugglers from Mali, Niger, and the Polisario, after a desert gun battle over ton of cocaine and hashish leaves four dead, according to a Malian army official.xxxvi&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Sept. 10, 2011&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Analysts say that Libyan dictator Qaddafi\u2019s fall seriously weakens the Polisario in its dispute with Morocco on the Western Sahara, after widespread reports that Polisario mercenaries sided with Qaddafi. xxxvii&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">May 29, 2011&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">US Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart urges colleagues in Congress to give &#8220;serious attention&#8221; to evidence that  Polisario members are &#8220;participating as mercenaries in Colonel Qaddafi&#8217;s murderous campaign.\u201dxxxviii&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">May 20, 2011&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The US Administration expresses concern to Algeria that \u201ccredible sources report\u201d that Polisario mercenaries are being paid by Qaddafi \u201cto fight NATO-led forces and kill Libyan protesters and rebels.\u201dxxxix&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">April 21, 2011&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The London Telegraph reports that senior NATO officials have received information that Col. Qaddafi is hiring 450 Polisario mercenaries for $10,000 each to fight Libyan rebels and prop up his regime.xl&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Jan. 16, 2011&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Former Polisario Chief Police Inspector, Mustapha Salma Ould Sidi Mouloud says \u201cthe situation is grave for the youth who are marginalized\u201d in Polisario-run camps in Algeria. \u201cThe camps are fertile grounds for Islamic fundamentalist groups and drug traffickers.\u201dxli&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Jan. 6, 2011&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Terrorism cell and arms cache broken up in W. Sahara suggest \u201clinks between AQIM and the Algeria-backed Polisario Front.\u201dxlii  Washington Post columnist J. Rubin writes, \u201cthere is ample evidence the Polisario Front\u2026 is in league with al-Qaeda.\u201dxliii&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Jan. 3, 2010&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">US DEA former Director of Operations, Michael Braun, calls conditions \u2018dismal for Saharans living in the Polisario-run camps,\u2019 which have become a \u201cbreeding-ground for potential future AQIM recruits.\u201d xliv&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Dec. 21, 2010&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Leaders arrested in one of the Sahel\u2019s largest drug-smuggling rings are purported to have close ties to the Polisario Front. Nigerien officials call it, \u201cone of the major drug trafficking networks&#8221; in the Sahara. It is known as &#8220;Polisario&#8221; because 90% of its members come from camps of the Polisario Front. xlv&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Dec. 9, 2010&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Political experts express increasing concern about violence instigated by pro-Polisario militants in Laayoune, Western Sahara. \u201cThe situation is becoming more dangerous, because of the violence and because al-Qaeda is now present.\u201d \u2013 political analyst T. Tarik.xlvi&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Nov. 10, 2010&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Algeria reports \u201cCocaine that comes from Brazil, Peru, and Colombia supports the nucleus of al-Qaeda in the region\u201d \u2013 Algerian head of the National Office for Combating Drugs &amp; Addiction, Abdelmalek Sayeh. xlvii&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Oct. 18, 2010&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">A drug ring linked to AQIM is dismantled in Morocco. VOA cites experts and evidence from Mauritania and Mali indicating that AQIM has worked in the last two years \u201cto recruit Sahrawis who are trained fighters to carry out their operations.\u201dxlviii&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Aug. 23, 2010&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">AQIM frees three Spanish kidnapping victims after Mauritania agrees to release the perpetrator, Omar Sahraoui, who is \u201cbelieved to have been a senior commander of the Polisario Front in Western Sahara.\u201dxlix&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">July 2010&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mauritania sentences reported Polisario veteran, Omar al Sahraoui, to 12 years for the 2009 kidnapping of Spanish aid workers. Mauritanian court papers document that he was paid by AQIM along with at least three other Polisario veterans to organize and carry out the crime.l&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">April 12, 2010&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Security expert calls the Western Sahara conflict a \u201cvicious cycle\u201d that terrorists can exploit; cites \u201cevidence that members of the military arm of the Polisario Front have been involved in illicit activities.\u201dli&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">February 2010&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Polisario veteran Omar le Sahraoui is arrested in Mali and extradited to stand trial in Mauritania for kidnapping Spanish aid workers.lii&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Nov. 29, 2009&nbsp;<\/div\n><\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">AQIM claims responsibility for kidnapping three Spanish aid workers in Mauritania. Mauritanian security services later discover that AQIM had hired Omar al Sahraoui\u2014who was reportedly a member of the Polisario\u2019s hierarchy\u2014and at least three other Polisario veterans to organize and carry out the abductions.liii&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Moroccan American Center for Policy<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sept. 29, 2011&nbsp; Mauritanian President reports that AQIM and other militants have acquired Libyan arms, including surface-to-air missiles. xxxiv&nbsp; Sept. 20, 2011&nbsp; US terrorism expert Yonah Alexander, International Center for Terrorism Studies, says the \u201cPolisario is intensifying activities to transport and smuggle illegal drugs in both North Africa and Europe. The Polisario is working with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2684],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-western-sahara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/xnalgrt.cluster100.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/xnalgrt.cluster100.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/xnalgrt.cluster100.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/xnalgrt.cluster100.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/xnalgrt.cluster100.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/xnalgrt.cluster100.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119507\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/xnalgrt.cluster100.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/xnalgrt.cluster100.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/xnalgrt.cluster100.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}