Issue link: http://bluemagazine.uberflip.com/i/25059
J From the Algiers airport I take a yellow Peugeot cab to the Hotel AI D'Jezair (the country's Arabic name). It is a fantasy Moorish-style hotel with grubby rooms and ornate plaster work. Its last famous guest was President Eisenhower during the North African campaign. We pass the security check of the cab's trunk and the guard asks where our securite is. The driver says, "Tourist, " and the guard gives me one of those French shrugs that says "I'll be damned " Inside the hotel, which I had heard is usually reserved for journalists and businesspeople, I go down to the bar to get the latest scoop. All I find are Russian hookers and Algerians looking for Russian hookers. Things have changed. The 120 journalists in town are at the newer, more secure Hotel Aurassi. Flipping on the TV, I am surprised to find French titty movies, CNN, hard-core pornography and Islamic religious broadcasts. No wonder people are confused. Algeria has not done well in the history books. It has been looted by Romans, ndals, Hafsids, Merenids, pirates, Spaniards, Arabs, Turks, the French and terrorists. Today the Ighting is a three-way boxing match with the major rings being Algiers to the east, Oran to the west and the dramatically named "Triangle of Death" in the south. . ,.Jt '.:::iI"""�I ;· ';'.:.:':.i!:.;::;"'/�::.:? ...... �.:. "lll ,..", ..... rT ..... : .�:��<::�:·;·i .. :·>.:·::·. :.: :.:--/<:.:::-.:... . . " �, :,:: :;:';.:;> .... : .. ..:.: : :':: : .... ,.. . . . ::\:;:: ::.: ....... ,.(; :::.�.' <·:.:·<.f:/· ::: :.::.:.�:::/.).: .. : : . ::.:::: �:j;::\:::'.:: · :: : .. :',., ; :',,: : .. .. .. , ... . .. . ; ,. . . . ; .. :.::/ .. '.;�': :':.:'.::.::.:':://::' :-,'.: :: .. ':':.':: :: . ' .. ; :· I say three way because you have the government soldiers, the phantomlike GIA and the equal- . . ) Iy stealthy "eradicators." The people in the middle who do the counting are the military and the jour nalists who themselves are the targets of either the terrorists or the hit squads. To make matters worse, the GIA is an assortment of Islamic cells with no clear leadership or sol- :',.:: .. : :::"��':: ::. :":';':::": idarity. To this date no journalist has ever talked with the GIA in Algeria. Something that lends cre · -/ �dence to a conspiracy theory buzzing around Algiers: The government is doing the ki l l ing to discredit ,:: the fundamentalists. The fact that the neutered FIS cal led a ceasefire in September so that the killings D D D D D D D D D r.0;:':: i·C].::: .. .. .. \!