Al Qaeda in Northern Nigeria-Is that the pitch for the next engagement?

Note this interesting 1 May 2008 quoting this two month old report: Constance Ikokwu in Washington, DC wrote an article supporting the idea that there is no "proven' al Qaeda connection in Northern Nigeria.

"The Sultan of Sokoto, the supreme Muslim authority in the country has stated 'there is no AQ cell of Taliban in Nigeria.' The Sultan received information from a longstanding network of traditional local and regional leaders (emirs) and maintained that it would be extremely difficult for terrorist groups to operate without the detection by this network." she notes

This deliberate effort at promoting the "no al Qaeda connection in Northern Nigeria" suggests the very opposite, that there may be something going on there.


-Shimron