Algerian intelligence chief sacked, what does it mean for US CT efforts?

After serving as Algeria’s spymaster for 25 years, Muhammad Bedienne, aka Tawfiq, was ‘retired’ by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and replaced with former deputy Athmane Tartag, aka Bachir.  Reports point to a power struggle between the powerful Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DRS), who played an instrumental role in subduing the violent civil war in the 1990’s, and the armed forces, who are now seen as better equipped to handle the jihadist threat from al-Qeada in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and IS affiliate Jund al-Khilafah (Army of the Caliphate).

With regard to cooperation with the US in the ongoing counter-terrorism campaign in North Africa, no changes are expected.  The new intelligence chief is cut from the same cloth as his former boss: both were trained in Moscow during the cold war and were in the front line of the campaign against the SGPC and GIA, the terrorist groups that plunged Algeria into anarchy after the 1990 coup that brought Bouteflika to power.  As he prepares his succession after suffering a stroke in 2013, Bouteflika is keen to limit the role of the all-powerful intelligence service and subordinate it to the army and ultimately, presidential control.

The DRS under Bedienne certainly succeeded in eliminating the Islamist uprising in the civil war of the 1990’s. Presently, the security debacle in Libya as well as the porous southern border that facilitate transnational jihadi group movement are top concerns for Algiers. Close cooperation with the US, France, and Russia (Tawfiq and Bachir were both trained by the KGB) has ensured that the jihadis have not grown into a serious threat to the regime at this time.  But with demographic and economic conditions strikingly similar to those that led to the Arab Spring, the jihadists will continue their propaganda and recruitment efforts throughout Algeria.