WASHINGTON, April 10 (UPI) -- U.S. counter-terrorism activities in the Horn of Africa may undermine U.S. goals, a new report said.
A report published Monday by the Council on Foreign Relations warned that President Bush's plan to "take the fight to the enemy" may be counterproductive because it damages Washington's image.
Experts quoted in the report said that concern about negative repercussions are most acute in Somalia, where the United States has sided with Ethiopian and Somali troops to fight against Islamist militias.
"Our presence alone in some of those countries will increase the militancy of Muslims," said Michael Scheuer, a retired CIA officer who led efforts to track Osama bin Laden, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. Scheuer was commenting on plans by the U.S. Defense Department to create an African Command by 2008.
The Council report indicated that other experts believe U.S. efforts are not robust enough to have an effect, given Somalia's current level of lawlessness.
However, reports from other sources in recent days provide examples of the extent to which the United States is a major political and military player in the region.
The New York Times reported on Saturday that Bush administration officials allowed Ethiopia to complete an arms deal with North Korea in January, even though North Korea was under sanction by the United Nations.
The Council on Foreign Relations report also cited an article published by the Associated Press on April 3 that said FBI and CIA agents have been interrogating terrorist suspects in Ethiopia's prisons.
The Council's warning about the possible consequences of Washington's counter-terrorism efforts were echoed in an article that appeared in the March/April issue of Foreign Affairs by John Prendergast and Colin Thomas-Jensen of the International Crisis Group.
Prendergast and Thomas-Jensen wrote that the U.S. goal of stemming terrorism in the Horn of Africa "is overshadowing U.S. initiatives to resolve conflicts and promote good governance -- with disastrous implications for regional stability and U.S. counter-terrorism objectives themselves."
