LEHMANN JUNE 2015 TUNISIA TERROR ATTACK ON THE

SOUSSE BEACH: WHO BENEFITS?

http://nsnbc.me/2015/06/27/tunisia-terror-attack-on-the-sousse-beach-whobenefits/
AlgeriaFrance - Tunisia RelationsLibyaMaliNATOSousseTunisiaTunisia - Turkey RelationsUMEOA

Christof Lehmann (nsnbc) : An assailant armed with an AK-47 opened fire on holidaymakers
on the beach of the Tunisian city of Sousse, killing at least 37 and injuring scores. The attack
came only two months after a similar attack on the Bardo Museum in Tunisia. The country has
overcome the so-called Arab Spring relatively intact, security-wise and politically, but
Tunisia is plagued by insurgencies that find a fertile ground for recruitment in a country that
aims at political consensus policy and is slow on social reform.

Both the attack on the Sousse beach and the attack at the Bardo Museumaimed at Tunisias tourism
industry. Both attacks were also clearly aimed at eliciting a response in European countries as most
of the victims were European holidaymakers.
In 2014 Tunisias tourism industry contributed nearly 15% to the countrys GNP. Tunisian Tourism
Minister Selma Elloumi told the press that the attack was a catastrophe but added that there was no
way to ensure zero risk.
Sousse is not merely a top-end holiday destination. It is also the traditional base for large parts of
Tunisias political elite. It is a city of contrasts. Western holidaymakers, a political elite, Tunisias top10%, a relatively well-off and mostly secular middle class blend with ardent poverty and
unemployment.
This contrast has become aggravated since the onset of the global economic crisis in 2007; fertile
ground for radicalization. Muslim Brotherhood linked organizations are extremely adept at using social
factors as basis for recruitment political as well as militant and Salafist / Wahhabi organizations
are on a steep learning curve in that regard.
The AQIM Nexus:
While it is still uncertain which exact organization stood behind the attack in Sousse it is likely to be
found within the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) nexus that includes the Uqba bin Nafti
Battalion, Ansar a-Sharia Tunisia and a few other, also AQIM linked groups. Terrorism, with the
exception of assassinations, seldom targets the direct victim. The attacks on the Bardo Museum and
the Sousse beach prompt the question who benefits and prompt a closer look at the track record of
AQIM and its function.

Dr. Oumar Mariko. Presidential Candidate SADI, Mali Oppressed by a French-bolstered security
apparatus.
AQIM was instrumental in securing the maintenance of French hegemony during the 2013 civil war
in Mali and the subsequent elections and election of a pro-French President. Mali is a UMEOA
member the neo-colonial, French-controlled instrument that allows Paris to waive almost absolute
control over its former West African colonies.
The security apparatus of Mali would launch relentless crack-downs against UMEOA critical
Presidential candidates like Dr. Oumar Mariko, while the election pitted Francophile A against
Francophile B.
AQIM was instrumental in the 2013 attempt to destabilize Algeria also a former French colony, and
AQIM was the springboard for the rise of the previously relatively obscureBoko Haram in oil and
resource-rich Nigeria.
It is noteworthy that Turkish intelligence, known for also supporting Muslim Brotherhood and
Wahhabi-linked terrorists in Egypt, has been implicated in shipping weapons to Boko Haram.
In the article entitled Terror Territory. The Rise and Function of Terrorism in Africa Professor
Alexander Mezyaev, Dean at the Academy of International Law and Governance in Kazan, Tatarstan,
would outline the rise of Al-Qaeda associated groups and terrorism in Africa since the 1990s and their
function.
Recent intelligence suggests that the NATO terror nexus aims at a renewed destabilization of
Tunisia and Algeria, thus creating a basis for foiling attempts to bring about a peaceful resolution to
the war in Libya. Other functions would be the maintenance of Libya, Tunisia, Algeria as a basis for
the recruitment and training of terrorists / mercenaries for Syria and Iraq as well as for Egypt.

Kidnapped Tunisian girls trafficked through Turkey to work as sex slaves for terrorists.

Human Cost - In 2013 Tunisias Interior Minister, Lofti Ben Jeddou, complained that Tunisian
Women are being trafficked through Turkey for Sex Jihad in Syria.
Young Tunisian girls are being trafficked via Turkey for forced prostitution for holy warriors.
The mass trafficking attracted so much attention that Islamists changed strategy e.g. Islamic
States advertising campaigns to attract girls.
The already stressed working class and the unemployed in Tunisia are suffering the greatest
consequences of the thousands of girls who returned to Tunisia, pregnant, suffering STDs including
HIV, suffering from psychological trauma and from being ostracized and left without adequate help.
Tentative Security Measures or a Fall-Back to Tunisias Old Security State?
The question whether the Tunisian government will have the political skill and the wisdom to use a
tentative approach to these national and regional security challenges or whether it will fall back to
going over the edge with using the still deeply entrenched pre-2011 security apparatus of the ousted
Ben Ali will determine whether the country can escape excesses and a dangerous political
polarization.
Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi traveled to Sousse after the massacre on the beach and told
the survivors and the press that painful but necessary measures would follow in the wake of this
attack. Essebsi has, arguably, the wisdom and advisers to differentiate between strong statements
and a tentative approach that does not aggravate differences between his secular Nidaa Tounes party
that leads a coalition government and the Muslim Brotherhood-linked opposition.
Mohsen Marzouk, the head of Nida Tounes and close adviser to President Essebsi suggested that
the law must be applied firmly. However, he also called for the creation of private sector security
forces. An attempt to out-fox sectors of the old security apparatus that are still beholden to French /
NATO intelligence?
Politicians from all parties represented in parliament have called for a national congress on
combating terrorism. A signal that suggests that all moderate Tunisians are all to aware of the fact
how easily a country like neighboring Libya and Mali in the South were manipulated into chaos.
One indicator that could suggest whether or not Tunisia can avoid an increasing polarization of the
country would be whether or not the government has the capability and political will to address the
contrast between the political and financial elite, a relatively well-off secular middle class and a
poverty-stricken but marginalized majority. Attacks on a tourism industry that stands for about 15%
GNP are, of course, making such endeavors difficult and this may indeed be one of the main
functions of the killing spree on the beach in Sousse.