And apparently Osama Bin Laden thinks so too. In a video message broadcast on the Arab television station al-Jazeera, the terror mastermind singled out Nigeria, because of its close ties with Washington, as a country worthy of jihad -- making the threat of a terrorist attack on Nigerian soil a very real possibility. Lyman commented, “...and that in itself is very damaging to international interests.” And particularly to American interests. And here's why: Nigeria is Africa's leading oil producer. It is also one of the top sources for oil for the United States. America imports as much oil from Africa, as it does from Saudi Arabia. And our thirst for African oil is expected to double in the years to come.

Lyman said, “Twenty-percent of the new oil coming on the market over the next decade is going to come from West Africa, and U.S. companies alone are going to be investing about 50 billion dollars up and down West Africa. Nigeria is a major part of that.” And slashing the West's oil arteries has become a major part of al Qaeda's terror tactics since 9-11. Experts say that by hitting oil targets overseas, terrorists can hit us here at home economically.

In the last 12 months, al Qaeda-linked groups have launched a series of attacks on several oil-rich countries, including Nigeria. Meanwhile, Nigeria continues to suffer from a panoply of issues, including a rising Islamist threat. The CIA's new director is concerned that the allure of fanatical Islam is attracting an alarming number of people from Nigeria's Muslim community. The rise of religious extremism is threatening to turn Africa's most populous nation into a breeding ground for international terrorists. And those terror recruits may be used outside as well as in Africa, to strike at Western targets. “As you know, you don't need a large amount of people,” Lyman observed. “You need ‘seams’ within populations to exploit frustrations that have been going on for a long time.’ And experts say that, for a long time, the U.S. has ignored this part of the world on almost every level, including intelligence gathering.

Author Douglas Farah has documented al Qaeda's growing sanctuary in Africa. “The U.S. intelligence involvement in West Africa, particularly after the collapse of the Cold War, was minimal,” said Farah. “The Africa, or the sub-Saharan African bureaus of the CIA, were cut to the bone. They lost two-thirds of their station in West Africa, and the stations that remained were staffed at less than half the level they had been before. So you are talking about a huge cut in our ability to monitor these areas of the world.” Farah says that is one reason why U.S. intelligence failed to anticipate the stunning spread of radical Islam across Africa. Farah added, “But particularly in West Africa. The Wahabbi strain of Islam, which preaches hatred to the West and is largely funded by Saudi charities, moved in very rapidly in the early 90s. And it is something that people are only now discovering, and only now starting to focus on in a very minimal way.”

Paul Marshall, a human rights advocate, says it is that Saudi-sponsored Wahhabi strain of Islam, that is fueling much of the Islamic fervor in Nigeria. Marshall said, ”You go there and you'll find the Saudis, and you find the Sudanese there, you find the Libyans there, you find Syrians there, Pakistanis there, and it’s all part of a world-wide Islamization.”

To try and checkmate the spread of Islamic fundamentalism, the Pentagon is deploying huge amounts of resources to intelligence-gathering in Africa. Washington has sent U.S. Marines and Special Forces to train local armies in several countries where terror threats are believed to be growing. General Charles Wald oversees most of Africa for the U.S. military's European Command. Wald said, "We are developing information sharing -- some people might call it intelligence -- but we are doing that, and we are helping train those countries to do a better job of actually policing their borders.”