(ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, JUNE 7 - Al Qaeda - by way of its
various branches (AQIM in the Maghreb, Boko Haram in Nigeria,
Shabaab in Somalia and AQAP in the Arabian Peninsula) - remains
the ''main threat'' at the global level as concerns terrorism,
despite the success achieved over the past few months against
the leadership levels of the shadowy fundamentalist terror
network.
It is the number one enemy that the international community
must deal with, according to the Global Counterterrorism Forum
(GCTF) in Istanbul, while in several countries endogenous
terrorist groups are coming to the fore, both ''lone wolves''
and through - as underscored by Italian Foriegn Minister Giulio
Terzi - ''the resurgence of anarchic transnational extremism,
fostered by the social consequences of the global economic
crisis''.
After the joining of Tunisia, the GCTF now consists of 32
member countries, both Western ones and ones from the Middle
East and Asia, which are aware - Terzi noted - of the
''potential for global destabilisation'' that the phenomenon
holds. The threat represented by Al Qaeda is still real, and has
been extended geographically despite the successes achieved in
the struggle against the upper ranks of the network, including
the killing of Osama Bin Laden and several of his lieutenants,
underscored US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, co-chair of
the Istanbul forum alongside Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet
Davutoglu.
In Terzi's view, AQIM, Boko Haram, Shabaab and AQAP ''have
become channels for the spread of violence from the Sahel to the
Horn of Africa, all the way to the shores of the Mediterranean
and the Red Sea,'' fostered by instability and piracy, the
hostage-taking industry, and illegal drugs and weapons
trafficking. Over the past decade, across the entire world
120,000 people have been arrested due to suspected ties with
terrorism and another 35,000 sentenced, noted Clinton. ''Our
citizens are safer,'' but ''despite the progress achieved, the
danger remains urgent and undeniable.''
Today the Global Counterterrorism Forum gave its seal of
approval to the Memorandum of Rome on the best practices that
the 32 member states pledge to adopt to prevent jails from
becoming a possible ''incubator'' of terrorism. The aim is to
prevent - in part through specific rehabilitation - that prisons
become a ''safe refuge'' for the terrorists arrested. ''We
need,'' Terzi said, ''to prevent the spread of terrorism,
including through terrorist detainees.'' (ANSAmed).
