User:Ttaylormark/sandbox

Counter Terrorism

The article on Counter Terrorism is full of information, but I'm concerned about the consistency with which that information is cited. There are large swaths, such as under the "Preemptive Neutralization" section that make claims without citing any sources or evidence. There also seems to be a lack of high-level sentence structure. The first thing I noticed when reading the page was that it seemed choppy and juvenile in its formatting. Obviously you expect various writing styles in a multi-source platform, but users should be careful to structure their writing in a way that instills confidence in the reader. Any effort to address this need would face the risk of altering or losing significant amounts of good information without the cooperation of the original authors.

Left-Wing Terrorism

This article contains too many brief summaries of various Left-Wing terrorist groups. Instead of focusing on the origins, goals, and transformations of Left-Wing, the article seemingly tries to describe every leftist group it can name. I think readers would be better served if the article talked more about the ideology and how it changed over the course of the Left-Wing wave. Instead of enumerating the most high profile groups, the section should explain to readers how to identify a Leftist group for themselves. This would be more pertinent to an encyclopedia format. I would also go into more detail on some of the sources referenced. I feel as though the authors relied to much on the hyperlinks to take readers to an explanatory page, instead of putting what they learned from the sourced material into their own words on the current page.

Abdelmalek Droukdel

1.     Lead Section

2.     Early Life and Education

a.     Also known as Abou Mossab Abdelwadoud, Droukdel is a university drop-out that received training in engineering. This became helpful as he climbed the ranks, using his education to design and develop bombs and explosives.

3.     Afghan War, Algerian Civil War and the GSPC

b.     The GSPC was the result of a decline in the GIA, and was founded by Hassan Hattab after his breakaway. The move was garnered by the unnecessary kiling of civilians that had led to the demise of popular support for the GIA in the region. However, as the Algerian civil war deintensified, the GSPC declined into more of an insurgency than a rebel group. As the group declined, it was forced into retreat, while carrying out several strikes against various state targets in Algeria. Its two remaining strongholds were Kabylia in the east and the Saharan region to the south. Interestingly, the group organized itself naturally into functional factions. The Saharan group, led by Mokhtar Belmokhtar looked for means of fundraising, while the Kabylia faction was still focused on fighting the Algerian state. This revealed a split in the organization on how the group would continue in the future. To this day, the group operates loosely, and under the assumption that infighting is frequent. Hassan Hattab was eventually ousted, and Nabil Sahraoui took is place. This set up the stage for Abdelmalek Droukdel to takeover upon Sahraoui's death.

4.     Emir of AQIM

a. As the new leader of the GSPC, Droukdel reorganized the group, and continued targeting civilians. He was, however, unable to quell the rumblings between factions. Meanwhile, Droukdel was growing closer and closer to Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, despite the traditional nationalism of the group. In 2007, the relationship came to fruition, and merged with Al-Qaeda, becoming known as Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). This coincides with Droukdel's aim to step further into the global stage.

b.      Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the leader of the GSPC in the Saharan region, was responsible for much of the personell growth in the group, and provided several tactical victories that gave the group room to operate away from state government interventions. Belmokhtar was not known to be fond of the idea of merging with Al-Qaeda, however, his efforts helped to facilitate the merger. His desire for an Islamic state continuing from the Nile through Europe coincided with bin Laden's goals to remove western influence from the continent. Belmokhtar's only true disagreement was with bin Laden's view on negotiating. He had frequently negotiated deals with rival and enemy groups. The tendency for him to find diplomatic solutions to problems would have made him preferable to western nations to more extreme alternatives.

After Droukdel was selected over Belmokhtar to lead the group following Sahraoui's death, he began to recede further into the north where his support was greatest. This, of course, led to his isolation and more freedom to operate as he saw fit. In 2007, Droukdel decided to reorganize the Saharan leadership to cover more of Belmokhtar's territory, and eventually removed him from leadership. While he publically praised the move, he was known to complain about the results. While still pledging loyalty to Al-Qaeda, Belmokhtar's ouster led to his complete self-removal from the AQIM, and he created a new group acting independently throughout the region.

5.     Relationship with Bin-Laden

6.     Attacks Responsible For

References