the continent of africa. >> this month chairman of the homeland security terrorism along with jackie spear urged the secretary of state to designate it as a foreign terrorist organization. with al qaeda affiliates stretching from yemen to somalia, north africa and possibly extending cooperation to nigeria. he says national security interests are at stake. >> nigeria represents an area of great concern because of the large amount of oil that is generated from that region to the united states markets. >> the attack on the u.n. compound was a significant departure which was used small arms to hit regional targets to establish islamic state calafate. american intelligence officials. >> we have been talking about areas like al think back in somalia for some time. countries like nigeria are also countries that we need to look at. >> senior defense officials say