Africa's rich in oil, gas, gold, silver, diamonds, uranium, iron, copper, tin, lead, nickel, coal, cobalt, bauxite, wood, coltan, manganese, chromium, vanadium-bearing titanium, and much more.
By Stephen Lendman
Global Research, December 26, 2012
Region: sub-Saharan Africa
Its more than about oil, stupid. Its for vast African riches. Resource/mineral wars define Americas agenda.
On December 15, 2006, the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) was authorized. On February 6, 2007, it was announced.
On October 1, 2007, it was established. On October 1, 2008, it became operational. Its mission is controlling Africas riches.
Theyre vast. Theyre some of the worlds largest and richest. Potential new deposits await to be found. Others known about await development. Modern exploration methods enable global exploitation. Virtually nothing escapes discovery.
Africas rich in oil, gas, gold, silver, diamonds, uranium, iron, copper, tin, lead, nickel, coal, cobalt, bauxite, wood, coltan, manganese, chromium, vanadium-bearing titanium, and much more.
Continental agricultural lands are valued. So is offshore fishing.
Congo, Southern Sudans Darfur region, Gulf of Guinea, Libya, Nigeria, and Niger, among other areas, hold special interest.
So does Mali. Last October, Reuters headlined Mali war plan to be ready within weeks: AU, saying:
Military intervention is planned to reclaim territory seized by Islamist militants. On March 22, an army coup toppled President Amadou Toumani Toure.
At the time, France signaled readiness to intervene. Malian junior officers revolted. They control northern areas. Obama officials call Mali a powder keg. Conditions threaten regional destabilization, they say.
Reasons are invented to intervene. Obama wants congressional funding. He prioritizes wars. Hes eager to begin term two with new ones. Permanent ones define his agenda.
NATO/EU partners are pressured to go along. Last October, the Security Council approved an international military mission to Mali. Ban Ki-moon was enlisted to help develop military intervention plans. Finalizing them was planned for end of November.
France drafted the UN resolution. It was Washingtons lead attack dog on Libya. It may have the same role on Mali. US special forces and drone attacks may be planned.
Theyre already involved. Covert ops and surveillance began months ago. Theyre prelude for whats planned. Operations may replicate Somalia, Yemen, or Libya 2.0 with less sustained air support.
Reuters called Mali paralyzed by twin crises. Leadership is divided. Last June, reports said African Union officials asked for Security Council intervention authority.
On December 20, it came unanimously. Timing was left unaddressed. Authorization signaled Washingtons intention to intervene. Obama already has. Greater invention is planned.
Security Council members voted days after Malian Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarras resignation.
Coup members arrested him. They forced him out. He strongly supports intervention.
Django Cissoko replaced him. Hes silent so far on favoring it. Malian Foreign Minister Tieman Hubert Coulibaly called authorization historic. His government supports it.
It asked Ban Ki-moon to confirm in advance the councils satisfaction with the planned military offensive operation.
Bans a reliable imperial ally. Hes replicated the worst of Kofi Annans failures and betrayal.
Both men abhor peace. They support Washingtons wars and occupations. They ignore Israels worst crimes. Theyre indifferent to human suffering. They call aggressive wars liberating ones.
They endorse Americas agenda. Malis in line to be attacked, destroyed and controlled. Bans comfortable with more African bloodshed. The entire Sahel region and beyond are threatened.
The Security Council resolution authorized an unspecified troop strength African-led International Support Mission (AFISMA). An initial one-year period was called for.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) wants 3,300 troops in Mali. Theyll be US/Western proxies. Nigerian forces appear designated to lead them.
Theyll conduct ground operations. US, French, and other NATO logistical, air, and intelligence operations will support them.
Timing remains undecided. Tactics are being planned. Clarity may come post-holidays. Perhaps after Obamas January 21 inauguration.
UN peacekeeping head, Herve Ladsous, suggested that logistical planning may delay intervention until September or October.
Frances UN ambassador, Gerard Araud, called it premature to say when military operations will begin. African and Malian troops must be trained, he said. Much depends on political considerations.
Extreme weather may intervene. In late March, monsoon season begins. It lasts months.
Timbuktus Mayor Halle Cisse asked for rapid military action to liberate our cities.
There is no school. There is no work and no money, he added. We are fed up with this situation. Timbuktu depends on tourism. Conflict keeps people away.
Media scoundrel fear mongering said Islamists imposed sharia law. Managed news misreporting made lurid claims. Propaganda substitutes for truth. Claims about banned public male/female socializing were featured.
Other accounts stressed attacking bars selling alcohol, recruiting child fighters, stonings, whippings, beheadings, amputations, and other punishments against non-believers.
Public sentiment is being prepared for intervention. US-style responsibility to protect (R2P) perhaps plans Libya 2.0 light.
For months, France and Washington held secret intervention talks. Rousting Islamist militants is pretext. So is waging war on terror. Resource control is policy.
Thursdays resolution welcomed ECOWAS troop pledges. It called for member states help. Chad, Mauritania and Niger were asked to contribute. Their troops have desert warfare experience.
Resolution language stressed two-track planning. Political and military were called for.
US and French special forces operate in Mali. Theyre active in other regional countries. They conduct covert operations. Theyre training Malian forces. Stepped up efforts are planned.
AFRICOM head General Carter Ham called Malian and other regional conditions vastly different than they were previously. There are now non-Al Qaeda associated (militant) groups that present significant threats to the United States.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) raises most concern, he said. Its also called the Salafist Group for Call and Combat. Other regional groups include the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa.
It is clear to me they aspire to conduct events more broadly across the region, and eventually to the United States, claimed Ham.
That is the ideology. That is the campaign plan. Establish the caliphate and spread the ideology. Attack Western interests. Attack democrat forms of government. We are certainly seeing it.
America creates pretexts to intervene. When enemies dont exist theyre invented. Imperial strategy prioritizes it.
Algiers University Professor Ahmed Adhimi believes Afghanistanizing the Sahel region looms.
Military intervention will attract adventurers, terrorists, and all those who want to fight the Crusaders like flower-containing pollen and nectar draw bees to produce honey.
Cross-border conflict may follow. Algeria may become Africas Pakistan. Washington may drag Algiers into a war it doesnt want. Itll end up victimized like other US targets. Obama perhaps plans it.
A Final Comment
CIA elements operate covertly virtually everywhere. So do US special forces in 120 or more countries.
Fifty-four nations comprise Africa. In 2013, the Pentagon plans sending small teams to over 35 of them. Perhaps theyre already in most of the other 19.
Reports about their role limited to training and equipping efforts dont wash. US forces everywhere are combat trained and ready.
Special forces are assassins. They specialize in search and destroy, extrajudicial assassinations, and other lawless acts.
Washington wants unchallenged African dominance. AFRICOM was established to rape the continents riches.
Proxy and direct wars are prioritized. Expect much more in resource-rich areas.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
By Stephen Lendman
Global Research, December 26, 2012
Region: sub-Saharan Africa
Its more than about oil, stupid. Its for vast African riches. Resource/mineral wars define Americas agenda.
On December 15, 2006, the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) was authorized. On February 6, 2007, it was announced.
On October 1, 2007, it was established. On October 1, 2008, it became operational. Its mission is controlling Africas riches.
Theyre vast. Theyre some of the worlds largest and richest. Potential new deposits await to be found. Others known about await development. Modern exploration methods enable global exploitation. Virtually nothing escapes discovery.
Africas rich in oil, gas, gold, silver, diamonds, uranium, iron, copper, tin, lead, nickel, coal, cobalt, bauxite, wood, coltan, manganese, chromium, vanadium-bearing titanium, and much more.
Continental agricultural lands are valued. So is offshore fishing.
Congo, Southern Sudans Darfur region, Gulf of Guinea, Libya, Nigeria, and Niger, among other areas, hold special interest.
So does Mali. Last October, Reuters headlined Mali war plan to be ready within weeks: AU, saying:
Military intervention is planned to reclaim territory seized by Islamist militants. On March 22, an army coup toppled President Amadou Toumani Toure.
At the time, France signaled readiness to intervene. Malian junior officers revolted. They control northern areas. Obama officials call Mali a powder keg. Conditions threaten regional destabilization, they say.
Reasons are invented to intervene. Obama wants congressional funding. He prioritizes wars. Hes eager to begin term two with new ones. Permanent ones define his agenda.
NATO/EU partners are pressured to go along. Last October, the Security Council approved an international military mission to Mali. Ban Ki-moon was enlisted to help develop military intervention plans. Finalizing them was planned for end of November.
France drafted the UN resolution. It was Washingtons lead attack dog on Libya. It may have the same role on Mali. US special forces and drone attacks may be planned.
Theyre already involved. Covert ops and surveillance began months ago. Theyre prelude for whats planned. Operations may replicate Somalia, Yemen, or Libya 2.0 with less sustained air support.
Reuters called Mali paralyzed by twin crises. Leadership is divided. Last June, reports said African Union officials asked for Security Council intervention authority.
On December 20, it came unanimously. Timing was left unaddressed. Authorization signaled Washingtons intention to intervene. Obama already has. Greater invention is planned.
Security Council members voted days after Malian Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarras resignation.
Coup members arrested him. They forced him out. He strongly supports intervention.
Django Cissoko replaced him. Hes silent so far on favoring it. Malian Foreign Minister Tieman Hubert Coulibaly called authorization historic. His government supports it.
It asked Ban Ki-moon to confirm in advance the councils satisfaction with the planned military offensive operation.
Bans a reliable imperial ally. Hes replicated the worst of Kofi Annans failures and betrayal.
Both men abhor peace. They support Washingtons wars and occupations. They ignore Israels worst crimes. Theyre indifferent to human suffering. They call aggressive wars liberating ones.
They endorse Americas agenda. Malis in line to be attacked, destroyed and controlled. Bans comfortable with more African bloodshed. The entire Sahel region and beyond are threatened.
The Security Council resolution authorized an unspecified troop strength African-led International Support Mission (AFISMA). An initial one-year period was called for.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) wants 3,300 troops in Mali. Theyll be US/Western proxies. Nigerian forces appear designated to lead them.
Theyll conduct ground operations. US, French, and other NATO logistical, air, and intelligence operations will support them.
Timing remains undecided. Tactics are being planned. Clarity may come post-holidays. Perhaps after Obamas January 21 inauguration.
UN peacekeeping head, Herve Ladsous, suggested that logistical planning may delay intervention until September or October.
Frances UN ambassador, Gerard Araud, called it premature to say when military operations will begin. African and Malian troops must be trained, he said. Much depends on political considerations.
Extreme weather may intervene. In late March, monsoon season begins. It lasts months.
Timbuktus Mayor Halle Cisse asked for rapid military action to liberate our cities.
There is no school. There is no work and no money, he added. We are fed up with this situation. Timbuktu depends on tourism. Conflict keeps people away.
Media scoundrel fear mongering said Islamists imposed sharia law. Managed news misreporting made lurid claims. Propaganda substitutes for truth. Claims about banned public male/female socializing were featured.
Other accounts stressed attacking bars selling alcohol, recruiting child fighters, stonings, whippings, beheadings, amputations, and other punishments against non-believers.
Public sentiment is being prepared for intervention. US-style responsibility to protect (R2P) perhaps plans Libya 2.0 light.
For months, France and Washington held secret intervention talks. Rousting Islamist militants is pretext. So is waging war on terror. Resource control is policy.
Thursdays resolution welcomed ECOWAS troop pledges. It called for member states help. Chad, Mauritania and Niger were asked to contribute. Their troops have desert warfare experience.
Resolution language stressed two-track planning. Political and military were called for.
US and French special forces operate in Mali. Theyre active in other regional countries. They conduct covert operations. Theyre training Malian forces. Stepped up efforts are planned.
AFRICOM head General Carter Ham called Malian and other regional conditions vastly different than they were previously. There are now non-Al Qaeda associated (militant) groups that present significant threats to the United States.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) raises most concern, he said. Its also called the Salafist Group for Call and Combat. Other regional groups include the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa.
It is clear to me they aspire to conduct events more broadly across the region, and eventually to the United States, claimed Ham.
That is the ideology. That is the campaign plan. Establish the caliphate and spread the ideology. Attack Western interests. Attack democrat forms of government. We are certainly seeing it.
America creates pretexts to intervene. When enemies dont exist theyre invented. Imperial strategy prioritizes it.
Algiers University Professor Ahmed Adhimi believes Afghanistanizing the Sahel region looms.
Military intervention will attract adventurers, terrorists, and all those who want to fight the Crusaders like flower-containing pollen and nectar draw bees to produce honey.
Cross-border conflict may follow. Algeria may become Africas Pakistan. Washington may drag Algiers into a war it doesnt want. Itll end up victimized like other US targets. Obama perhaps plans it.
A Final Comment
CIA elements operate covertly virtually everywhere. So do US special forces in 120 or more countries.
Fifty-four nations comprise Africa. In 2013, the Pentagon plans sending small teams to over 35 of them. Perhaps theyre already in most of the other 19.
Reports about their role limited to training and equipping efforts dont wash. US forces everywhere are combat trained and ready.
Special forces are assassins. They specialize in search and destroy, extrajudicial assassinations, and other lawless acts.
Washington wants unchallenged African dominance. AFRICOM was established to rape the continents riches.
Proxy and direct wars are prioritized. Expect much more in resource-rich areas.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.