Jeremy Keenan

Professor Jeremy Keenan

Jeremy Keenan (born 1945) is a British social anthropologist. The regional focuses of his research are the Sahara, North Africa and the Sahel region, and he concentrates on anthropology of development, security and globalisation.[1] He has published a number of books and articles about the approaches of the United States to counter terrorism in Africa.[2]

Keenan has long argued that Islamist terror groups in North Africa are masterminded by Algeria, with the knowledge of the CIA and other intelligence services, which stage "false flag" attacks to expand Algerian and US political influence over the region and its economic resources.[3] In his book "The Dark Sahara", Keenan accuses the United States and Algeria of having conspired to fabricate evidence and exaggerate the threat of al-Qaeda terrorism in Northern Africa. He calls the "global war on terror" a deception and claims that it is causing immense damage to the peoples of the Sahara, namely the Tuareg.[4][5]

On 22 May 2012, he alleged in a BBC interview that the Algerian government (despite being officially secular) was backing Ansar Dine, both because Ansar Dine justified the existence of the government's security apparatus, and because backing it allowed Algeria to "project power in what it sees as its sphere of influence".[6]

  1. ^ Professor Jeremy Keenan, Department of Anthropology and Sociology Archived 9 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, retrieved on 14 April 2012
  2. ^ Chan, Stephen (Spring 2010), "Introduction to 'The origins of AFRICOM: the Obama administration, the Sahara-Sahel and US Militarization of Africa'", Concerned Africa Scholars (85): 85
  3. ^ Menas Associates; Algeria Politics & Security weekly reports; http://www.menas.co.uk/politics_and_security/algeria/home.aspx Archived 17 January 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ Sammut, Dennis (20 January 2010), "Review of Jeremy Keenan's 'The Dark Sahara: America's War on Terror in Africa'", Pambazuka News, no. 466, archived from the original on 9 October 2013, retrieved 14 April 2012
  5. ^ Brody, Hugh (8 October 2011), "Gaddafi and the Tuareg, the "Lords of the desert"", Open Democracy, archived from the original on 10 September 2017, retrieved 14 April 2012
  6. ^ Robin Banerji (22 May 2012). "Life in Timbuktu under Islamist rule". BBC.