September 9, 2007: The government refused to allow Islamic terrorists, who had accepted amnesty and disarmed, to form political parties. The former terrorists had asked politely. Islamic political parties won national elections in 1992, but the government, dominated by revolutionaries who led the fight for independence from France in the 1950s and 60s, refused to allow the Islamic politicians to take over. The Islamic parties won by promising to eliminate the massive corruption in the government, which had allowed the economy to stagnate, was unjust and the usual stuff. The Islamic radicals tried to use terror to overthrow the government, but the old revolutionaries proved too tough. Nearly 200,000 people died during over a decade of violence. The Islamic terror tactics were based on the idea that any Moslem who did cooperate was not a real Moslem, and should be killed, along with their family, if possible. Entire families were often slaughtered in a campaign that eventually saw the population choose the corrupt politicians over the pure, but murderous, Islamic radicals. Same pattern played out in Egypt, at about the same time, and later in Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Meanwhile, the mismanagement of the Algerian economy has left the majority of young (under 30) Algerians unemployed and unhappy. This creates another generation of rebels. Actually, it already has. Although most Algerians oppose al Qaeda and Islamic terrorism, the corruption and mismanagement of the government angers enough people, especially unemployed young men, to staff the current force of several hundred Islamic terrorists. This is a pattern common throughout the Arab world, where the inability to create effective governments, and the propensity for dictatorships, has created Islamic radicals desperate to try anything to change the situation. That eventually led to attacks on the West, seen as enemies of Islam and somehow responsible for all the ills of the Arab world.

September 8, 2007: A hundred kilometers east of the capital, a car bomb went off outside a navy base, killing 27 sailors and police, and three civilians. About fifty were wounded.

September 7, 2007: Some 430 kilometers east of the capital, a suicide bomber walked into a crowd awaiting a visit from the president, and detonated his explosives. Some twenty were killed and over a hundred wounded.

September 3, 2007: Some 600 kilometers east of the capital, several dozen Islamic terrorists rushed into a town, murdered an elderly man, and then rigged the neighborhood with booby traps. These killed five of the policemen who responded. Other police picked up the trail of the terrorists, who had fled into the forest. Eventually, at least seven of the terrorists were trapped and killed.

August 26, 2007: A roadside bomb went off outside the capital, wounding five people. The target was a police patrol. It was a crude bomb, which damaged the police car and injuring the two police officers.