The bare details of the January 16 assault on Algeria’s Ain Amenas natural gas field speak the loudest: Launched from neighboring Mali  the attack appears at this point to have been supplied from Libya and carried out by fighters from Algeria Egypt Mali Mauritania Niger and Tunisia. All of these nations are substantial producers of fossil fuels or minerals at installations that are themselves potential targets of attack. As a result both Algeria and Libya have beefed up security at all of their oil and gas installations and some foreign oil companies have withdrawn staff from Algeria. But Ain Amenas dramatizes a ...