states and other allies are working closely with a variety of countries whether kenya to counteral shabaab or in the basin to counterboko haram. challenge is two fold. one, having the coordinated intelligence across a variety of different countries with whom we don t have multiple intelligence sharing agreements in order to find, fix and finish these various targets. and the second problem, frankly, is one of capacity and governance. most of these groups operate in areas that are large ungoverned spaces that are very difficult to track and they obviously are benefiting from the great deal of insecurity that followed the toppling of moammar gadhafi in libya, thus facilitating the flow of weapons and people across the region. what s clearly needed is a much greater sense of cooperation and much greater operational cooperation and indeed cooperation on matters of intelligence to counter a variety of these threats across the region. how big a job is that? it is enormous.
it s enormous because you are not only talking about a wide geographic region but also because of the challenge of sharing intelligence in a way that s both actionable, that also protects the sources and methods of that gathering and particularly doing so amongst a variety of countries that don t traditionally have the sorts of agreements. interestingly enough, once one has the intelligence, it is a comparatively easy matter to figure out how to go avid targets. but the real challenge is finding out where these people are so that we can actually take the steps that are necessary. it seems like it so often falls to the united states to lead this charge. do you have any sense if there is a greater collective will to do this among other countries? well, first of all, i think the french have been incredibly engaged, certainly in mali. for sure. dating back to january 2013. there is increasingly series of cooperation with other countries from the european union.
out folks that look like me. it would minimize the intrusions. but in the name of equality actually everyone goes through the metal detector. note also that those metal detectors don t involve warrants or probable cause or even so even without thinking about it we ve given plenty in that direction. already. what s on your mind? thinking about airports, it is also important to be realistic about how much we can screen people. more than 800 million people pass through american airports every year. and in european airports it s close to 2 billion. it s unlikely that with all of these various attempts to keep us safe through tsa and others that we will be able to protect every single person who s going through those airports. i think being realistic about what the challenge is instead of using it for political purposes. that s what makes i think senator rand paul s presidential
charlie hebdo. the most daring attack on west in years by a group that had begun to be seen in jihadist terms as a bit greying and cautious compared with the social media savvy islamic state. some european analysts believe that the islamic state operative who officials say orchestrated last week s killings saw the january attack as an urgent challenge to do something bigger. joining me now an expert on the complex relationship between al qaeda and isis, malcolm nance, executive director of the terror asymmetrics project. do you sense when we read that piece in the times yesterday about this rivalry, do you sense there isrifvalry between these two groups? of course. there s been a rivalry between these two groups going back to late 2013. there was a split between isis and al qaeda. first not ideologically.
the challenges we facing now is a global challenge, a holistic one. so its nation must feel concerned, deeply concerned, what happened to mali. reporter: one of the frightening aspects of this, harry, is that the attack here has been claimed by a local affiliate of al qaeda. we talked about yesterday that just raising the specter of isis and al qaeda competing to carry out the worst possible massacre. one other point, harry. the american who was killed in there, there are tributes pouring in to her, including from hillary clinton. she worked for usaid and she is described as somebody who just dedicated herself to west africa and to the poor. a terrible, terrible loss for people here and for her family, harry. keir simmons in mali this morning live, thank you very much. now to for the latest on the hunt for one of the terror