al Qaida in Africa

An Associated Press report says that al-Qaida has infiltrated Africa from one end of Sahara to the other. The group seems to have used the old method of winning hearts and minds to get on friendly terms with the locals by giving them much needed medical supplies, buying food from them at high prices, and respectfully asking to drink from their wells. As the saying goes, you catch more flies with sugar than with vinegar. One result of this infiltration is that the bases they set up in countries like Mali in the eastern part of the continent are being used to kidnap wealthy tourists for ransom to raise money to fund the groups. Let's hope that western governments have a strategy for dealing with hostage negotiations.