Read Mission Liberty for Free Online Page B

IPAB,” Kissick said. “Islamic Pan-African Brotherhood. The blue dots are training facilities, all in the Sahel region,
     sub-Saharan, which, as far as we can tell, no country has ever figured out how to govern or police. It’s mostly training for
     military or terrorist activities, but some are more like schools for Islamic study. IPAB was initially an offshoot of the
     Muslim Brotherhood, which began in Egypt in the fifties. Bin Laden’s number two man, Abdullah al-Wahiri, was one of the founders
     of the Muslim Brotherhood. Beginning around 1995, various small, not terribly well-organized rebel elements in Liger began
     attacking oil facilities in the north, provoking various reactions by the government and by the oil companies, which found
     it necessary to hire and train their own security forces, with the blessing and cooperation of the government. Such attacks
     were sporadic and poorly planned, at first, but with the help of IPAB, rebel factions became better organized and better armed.
     Al Qaeda certainly had a hand in the training and in the funding, but we think it goes beyond Al Qaeda.”
    Kissick clicked again to show the satellite image of an African village.
    “So here’s what’s going on today,” he said, clicking again to zoom in one level of magnification. “After 9/11, rebel forces
     inspired and emboldened by the attack on the World Trade Center declared full-out civil war against President Bo’s government
     with the intention of overthrowing him and establishing an Islamic government. If you count the number of Muslims in Liger,
     and include the number of Da who add Islam to the list of religions they embrace, then Muslims represent the majority by about
     65 percent or so. If you count Christian Fasoris and add in Christian Da, you get about 50 percent. Bo suspended planned elections
     after the declaration of civil war, but he’d promised and suspended them for several years prior to that, seeking to avoid
     the same fate as Sesi Mutombo, I gather. The war smoldered until six months ago, when civil unrest in the north escalated.
     That unrest flared up again a month ago when President Bo said he was going to nationalize the oil industry, in order to better
     defend it. The main body of the rebel forces is calling itself LPLF or Ligerian People’s Liberation Front, led by General
     Thomas Mfutho. Mfutho was at one time thought to be third in command in Liger, behind Bo and General Emil-Ngwema, Bo’s right-hand
     man, but apparently some years ago he decided he could do better on his own. We estimate he has between seventy-five hundred
     and eight thousand troops, poorly trained, most of them, moderately equipped. Minimal air support, a handful of helicopters
     and triple A. However, in the last month, a large amount of arms and equipment supplied by the U.S. to the Bo government has
     fallen into enemy hands. We also believe he’s been supplying himself from weapons cached in Iraq that we, unfortunately, failed
     to prevent from leaving the country.”
    He clicked again to zoom to a lower level of magnification. DeLuca saw a collection of circular structures that he took to
     be the thatched roofs of a number of huts or houses in the village.
    “Let me show you what’s going on in this country. There are currently about two million displaced people in northern Liger.
     That includes Da, Kum, Ashanti, Twi, Fur peoples driven out of Sudan by the Janjaweed, who still occasionally make raids on
     horseback into Liger. The joke going around the Pentagon is that we’re going to have to dust off some of our old cavalry uniforms
     from the 1800s and dig up John Wayne to lead the troops.”
    The Republicans on the congressional fact-finding delegation laughed. The Democrats didn’t.
    “Most of the time, however, the Pentagon is not in a joking mood.”
    He clicked to a lower level, at the same time adding a pair of insets, photographs of two men, one of whom DeLuca recognized,
     the other