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thedrifter
10-02-06, 08:02 AM
Marine to fight terrorism in Africa
Geography specialist deploying to Djibouti to join al-Qaida team

Erin Zlomek
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 2, 2006 12:00 AM

SURPRISE - When a French newspaper recently reported the possible death of Osama bin Laden, both French and Pakistani officials were quick to deny the claim. Surprise resident Antoinette Izzo laughs at the international stir - she knew better than to believe rumors.

"I take everything that I see with a grain of salt," she said. "It's kind of like being a jury member - innocent until proven guilty. Same thing, I don't believe anything until I have enough supporting evidence."

Within the week, Izzo, 23, will leave her gray cubicle in Surprise City Hall's Information Technology Department. She joins the U.S. Marine Corps' counterterrorism unit investigating al-Qaida. She will be stationed in Djibouti, Africa.

"It (Africa) is the up-and-coming focus of terrorism outside of Iraq and Afghanistan because those countries are not very stable," she said. "When terrorists come into a country that doesn't have a very set government, they can take advantage and exploit the weaknesses in it. They can use it for training, they can traffic things through there. It is giving them a lot of opportunity to conduct whatever it is they are doing."

A Surprise employee for two years, Izzo monitors satellite photos of the city. She tells emergency vehicles the fastest way to get to their destination and maps out roads for city planners. In a similar capacity, she will soon comb African geography in search of terrorist training camps.

As for her direct involvement in the al-Qaida investigations, she has yet to be briefed on her role.

Izzo enlisted in the Marine Corps in 2000, when she was a freshman at Arizona State University.

"I was relatively bored with college. I decided I needed to do something above and beyond the norm. It seemed to be the most outrageous thing I could do at the time," she said.

Though she could blend in as a flip-flop-wearing, book-toting Sun Devil, she left the university to spend five months touring Kuwait and Iraq.

"I just did not want to go back there," she said.

Once Izzo's active duty ended, she settled in Surprise, bought a house and began making preparations to move in with her boyfriend, John. Those plans were dashed in August when President Bush called 2,500 Marines back to active duty.

The second time around, Izzo was lucky to have a choice. She jumped on the first plane to a Marine Corps training camp to secure her spot on the special Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa team.

Izzo begins her six-month tour in January.

Ellie