Issue link: https://bluemagazine.uberflip.com/i/25059
coul on cre ence to an e government (and the GIA) has decimated the FIS to such an extent that it can make it a partner. Now it takes one to know one and in the world of terrorism the FLN wasn't taken light ly. The FLN was born in Egypt in March 1954 when Ahmed ben Bel la and 80 exiles sparked the movement that was to oust the French eight years later. Their methods were brutal, sick ening and effective. Now that the sons of the FLN are in charge it is unlikely that they will power to another terrorist group. They know how to fight dirty. They have to, this is geria. Algeria's economy is still a shambles but it makes millions of dollars from e largest oil reserves in Africa. Oil from the south keeps the coffers going, but unemploy runs at 20 to 35 percent. Most of the country's money is in the hands of about 5,000 ite. Meanwhile, the population, 70 percent of which is under 25, is growing at 25 percent a year-twice the world rate. For a place that seems to deter journalists, the Hotel Aurassi sure is crowded. The journalists ask me "who I'm with." When they realize I am a tourist they laugh at first, then ask me for an interview. It seems that the tightly controlled bus tours to mas sacre sights and survivors' dull, monotone accounts is not giving them grist for the news mill ck home. The lobby is a bustling noisy center littered with Betacams, canvas briefcases and jour nalists lining up for phones and information. The government has printed voluminous books on the regional candidates up for election and there are long lists that must be fi lled out for the bus tours. The best trip is to a spot where gunships are pounding the forest. Here, the government says, the terrorists are trapped in the forest and are being eliminated. Strangely no journalists have heard anyone firing back from the lush green hills. In the bar that overlooks the white city of Algeria, a local businessman overhears me Iking to a journalist. When she leaves, he motions to me to come close. He asks if I know where he can get used bulldozers. He trades in goods and comes to Algiers often on busi ness. He is Algerian but ci rcumstances force him to live in Cairo. He has survived two bomb ings on his many trips back home. We stray into politics and I ask him if he knows how to contact the G IA. He says politely but firmly, "The GIA does not exist." This is a name that gives journalists something to write about. The GIA is the Israeli Mossad in action. "The Israelis are not stupid. They know that if you were to add up all the young moslem men in this country willing to fight the total would be in the millions. If you add the youth Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Libya and other poor countries we would overwhelm them. The Mossad learned this during the Gulf War when for one instant the entire Arab world turned against Israel and they realized the danger. "They need us to be poor, divisive, and focused on other things. The GIA are not Algerians, they are mujahideen, Afghans, mercenaries who don't even know the Koran. They are brought here and paid to kill. When they are dead, more are brought here. Life is cheap where they come from." My bulldozer-buying friend has the framework right-the timing, the fact that many the captured mujahideen are not Algerian and maybe even the motive behind the brutal killings. Later in Afghanistan, an Afghan diplomat tells me that two years ago 2,000 volun teers were hired, tra ined and shipped off to Algeria to fight jihad. Who paid the bill? He points the finger at Osama bin Laden, a wealthy rabble rouser from Saudi Arabia who now lives in Kandahar, Afghanistan, under Taliban protection. I hear other theories of GIA identity. They are Iran-funded Afghans trained in the Sudan and armed by the Sicilian Mafia. The GIA are death squads directed by businesspeople who wish to drive villagers off Algeria's most fertile and lucrative land. The GIA is simply a demented group of hard-core fundamentalists that make up in brutality what they can't do politically.