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An update on the terminology used to refer to the hostage-takers on the third of the siege: both ABC's Raddatz and NBC's Stephanie Gosk called them alternately "militants" and "terrorists." CBS' Mark Phillips named them as the Mass Battalion while his colleague David Martin, from the Pentagon, told us that the militia adopted the name al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in 1994 for recruitment purposes. Leader Mokhtar bel-Mokhtar (CBS adds an "h" to ABC's spelling) was given three noms de guerre by CBS' Martin: The Prince, One Eye & Marlboro Man. NBC's Gosk offered the best evidence that the raid against BP was politically inspired, rather than mere banditry. She told us that bel-Moktar's militia sought the release by the United States of two radical Islamists: Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman and Aafia Siddiqui.
Rounding out the day's Maghreb coverage, ABC's Brian Ross showed us a map of northern Africa: US counterterrorist military bases are in Sicily and Djibouti; al-Qaeda's forces are concentrated in Nigeria, Mali and Somalia. Many of them are 2,800 miles away from a base of attack, Ross noted.
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