Crisis in Algeria - U.S. diplomatic relations

[Al-khiyal]

ALGIERS, April 21 (Reuters) - Algeria's prime minister renewed on Saturday criticism of a U.S. embassy alert about possible imminent attacks in the capital, Algiers, saying it was unacceptable interference in the country's affairs.

A warden notice issued to U.S. expatriates on April 14 said there might be attacks planned for that day in Algiers, a move that caused alarm in the city just three days after suicide bombs killed 33 people in the Algerian capital.

"This is not acceptable, this is not moral and this is not diplomatic," Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem said in an interview on state television.

Belkhadem, echoing comments from many Algerians, expressed concern about the details given in the alert, which cited unconfirmed information suggesting attacks might happen at the main post office and state television offices.

The day passed off peacefully.

"This is something that never happened at all in any other country - an embassy in a sovereign country that published on its website an advisory about a terrorist attack by giving the date and the locations," Belkhadem said.

"We don't accept any interference in our domestic affairs."

The April 11 bombings were the first large attacks in the centre of the Mediterranean port city in more than a decade. They raised fears that the North African gas-exporting country might return to the political violence of the 1990s when tens of thousands of Islamist guerrillas fought the army to try to set up Islamic rule.

Algeria PM says U.S. attack alert "not moral"

[Al-khiyal]

Dimanche 22 Avril 2007 -- Mohammed Bedjaoui, ministre d’Etat, ministre des Affaires étrangères, a reçu hier à Alger M. Clint Williamson, ambassadeur itinérant américain, qui lui a remis une lettre de Mme Condoleezza Rice, secrétaire d’Etat américaine. Au cours de cet entretien, M. Bedjaoui a rappelé les exigences de la lutte internationale contre le terrorisme et a fait état des «sacrifices de l’Algérie dans sa lutte pionnière contre ce fléau», a indiqué une source du ministère des Affaires étrangères. Il a également communiqué à M. Williamson un message verbal sur le Sahara occidental, destiné à Mme Rice, a-t-on ajouté. Le communiqué du ministère des Affaires étrangères ne fait pas état du contenu de la lettre de Condoleezza Rice.

Cependant, on peut aisément en deviner les motivations liées certainement à la convocation de l’ambassadeur des Etats-Unis à Alger par le ministère des Affaires étrangères à la suite de l’incident diplomatique provoqué par les déclarations faites par l’ambassade américaine sur d’éventuels attentats qui auraient été programmés à la Grande Poste et à la place des Martyrs à Alger.

Le fait de dépêcher un ambassadeur itinérant à Alger révèle les intentions de Washington de dissiper le malentendu et de réparer la maladresse de sa représentation diplomatique à Alger, d’autant plus qu’il s’agit, d’une part, de questions sécuritaires sensibles ayant exacerbé la panique et l’angoisse des Algérois déjà sous le choc des deux attentats et, d’autre part, la mise en circulation de ce genre d’informations par une représentation diplomatique sans les communiquer aux autorités compétentes est de nature à compromettre l’enquête des services de sécurité.

Washington et le département d’Etat semblent avoir mesuré la portée de l’indélicatesse de leur représentation à Alger concernant un domaine où la coopération entre les deux pays est censée être exemplaire et sans équivoque. Pour être efficace, la coopération dans la lutte antiterroriste repose essentiellement sur l’échange d’informations et sur la discrétion, voire le secret absolu. Autrement, ce serait de la surenchère.

Après l’incident diplomatique provoqué par l’ambassade des états-unis à Alger :
Rice envoie une lettre à Bedjaoui

[Al-khiyal]

Clint Williamson

Condoleezza Rice concluded officially, yesterday, the silent crisis between Algeria and the US, by sending the US Ambassador-at-Large Clint Williamson to redress the US Embassy’s diplomatic error, namely warnings about potential terrorist attacks on Algiers post office and the government television headquarters in the aftermath of April 11 terrorist bombings.

The US Secretary of State sent the Ambassador-at-Large Clint Williamson to Algeria where he was received by Foreign Affairs Minister Mr. Mohamed Bedjaoui. Algeria Press Service, APS, reported that according to a foreign affairs ministry source, the US envoy delivered a letter from Condoleezza Rice to Mohamed Bedjaoui. The source made it clear that Bedjaoui reminded the US envoy of the “requirements of international terrorism combating”, noting “the sacrifices Algeria paid in its pioneer war against the plague of terrorism”.

Some analysts say the visit falls within a US endeavour to repair the “diplomatic error”, made after the airing of a communiqué warning about potential terrorist attacks.

Bedjaoui and Williamson discussed the issue, and analysts say that the “international terrorism combating requirements” Bedjaoui mentioned were meant to emphasize that efficient combating of transnational terrorism should pass through official channels.

In another respect, APS reported that the US envoy conveyed a verbal message on the Western Sahara, in the framework of discussions undertaken between UN General Assembly members in New York on Ban Ki-Moon's report on the Western Sahara. According to sources, the message enshrines Algeria stand calling for the respect of the self-determination principle in the settlement of the Western Sahara conflict.

Rice intervenes in silent diplomatic crisis between Algeria and the U.S.

Rice met fin à une crise diplomatique silencieuse

[Al-khiyal]

Well informed sources have revealed that the USA presented officially the motives for its warning to US nationals through the US Secretary of State's Ambassador at-Large, Clint Williamson, who affirmed that the measures had been applied in many other countries through embassies and consulates and was not meant to interfere in the internal affairs of Algeria.

The same sources report that the US warning had its origins in legal and security considerations that concern US nationals’ security, as a set of suspect communications had been recorded after wire tapping operations.

According to the US Secretary of State web site, many warnings have been aired, including those in countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, among them the US Embassy in Jakarta warning on May 28th 2006, the Nigeria Consulate in Lagos warning on August 28th 2006, the US Embassy in Riad warning on May 21st 2006 in addition to the US Embassy in Germany on April 20th 2007.

The US administration tried to present the official position to the Algerians, underscoring the non-existence of any intention to interfere in Algeria's internal affairs and that the warnings are measures operational since 1988, strengthened after the attacks of September 2001, enforced through a legal text operational throughout all areas.

Why did Washington warn its nationals in Algeria?

Des communications suspectes à l’origine des mises en garde de l’ambassade

[Al-khiyal]

A few obvious questions are these - Did the U.S. liaise with Algerian authorities prior to issuing its warning and reveal the nature of the suspect communications obtained by wire-taps, thus enabling the Algerians to work out a response that did not terrify its own citizens, cause panic, disruption and economic losses and shake the confidence of the international community in Algeria's own security arrangements? And if the Americans knew something that the Algerians didn't - what kind of effective 'security cooperation' actually exists between the two nations? Did anyone within the ranks of Algeria's own securocrats receive advance notice of the specific details of the alleged intelligence underpinning the American warning and, if so, who did and who else did they inform?

[Al-khiyal]