NATO recently confirmed that it has prolonged an agreement to provide
strategic sealift and airlift support for African (Ugandan, Rwandan
and Burundian) troops to assist Somalias Transitional Federal
Government in the nations civil war. ...The Pentagon supplied the
transport planes under the NATO banner and the operation was
undertaken by USA contracted DynCorp International.
So we have a mercenary corporation transporting mercenary troops
to carry out our imperialist objectives in Africa. A whole continent
being conquered, and massive genocide being carried out, and we
never read about any of this in the mainstream media. Isn't democracy
wonderful, here in the land of the free and the home of the brave?
rkm __________
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=ROZ20...
rticleId=18246
The US-NATO Conquest of Africa Militarization of the African Continent
By Rick Rozoff
Global Research<http://www.globalresearch.ca/>, March 21, 2010
Stop NATO<http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/>
The worlds oldest extant military bloc (formed 61 years ago) and
the largest in history (twenty eight full members and as many
partners on five continents), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization,
counts among its major member states all of Africas former colonial
powers: Britain, France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany andBelgium.
After World War II and the groundswell of anti-colonial sentiment
throughout Africa and Asia, the European powers were forced to
withdraw from most of the African continent, though Portugal retained
its possessions until the 1970s.
Most every new African nation adopted some model of socialist-oriented
economic and political development and the continent as a whole
more closely aligned itself with the Soviet Union, which moreover
had for decades supported the anti-colonial struggles in Africa,
than with the West, both Western Europe and the United States.
With the end of the Cold War and the breakup of the Soviet Union
nearly twenty years ago, the major Western powers on both sides of
the Atlantic Ocean, united under the aegis of NATO, saw that as
with the Balkans and the former republics of the Soviet Union itself,
Africa was now wide open for penetration and domination.
NATOs largest, most powerful and dominant member is of course the
United States. On October 1, 2007 the Pentagon established United
States Africa Command (AFRICOM) under the temporary wing of United
States European Command, which at the time included in its area of
responsibility all of Africa except for four island nations in the
Indian Ocean and the Horn of Africa states and Egypt. (The first
were in Pacific Command and the others in Central Command where
Egypt, alone among Africas 53 nations, remains.)
A year to the day later AFRICOM was launched as the first new U.S.
regional military command outside North America since Central Command
was activated 25 years earlier in 1983. It takes in far more nations
52 than any other military command in history.
AFRICOM was conceived, carried, nurtured and delivered by the
Pentagons European Command (EUCOM), based in Stuttgart, Germany
where AFRICOM headquarters are also based as no nation in Africa
has yet volunteered to be the host.
The top commander of EUCOM is dual-hatted as NATOs Supreme Allied
Commander Europe (SACEUR) and has been from General Dwight D.
Eisenhower in 1951 to Admiral James Stavridis today.
The three top EUCOM/NATO military commanders most instrumental in
the creation of AFRICOM were General Joseph Ralston (2000-2003),
General James Jones (2003-2006) and General Bantz John Craddock
(2006-2009). Arguably Jones, former Marine Corps four-star general
and current U.S. National Security Adviser, was the real father of
Africa Command. [1]
The distinction between the Pentagon and NATO in relation to Europe
and Africa and increasingly the Caucasus, the Caspian Sea Basin,
Central Asia, South Asia and the Indian Ocean is blurred and more
and more of a strictly formal nature.
NATO has now joined AFRICOMs first war, in Somalia.
The blocs Allied Command Operations website announced on March 18
that from March 5-16 the North Atlantic military alliance had
airlifted 1,700 Ugandan troops from their homeland to the Somali
capital ofMogadishu for the intensified fighting that began there
earlier this month.
The Pentagon supplied the transport planes under the NATO banner
and the operation was undertaken byUSA contracted DynCorp International.
[2]
The commander of AFRICOM, General William Ward, recently informed
the Senate Armed Services Committee of plans to focus the military
commands attention on East Africa and indicated plans to assist the
formal government of Somalia to reclaim the countrys capital.
In May the European Union is to began training 2,000 Ugandan troops
for deployment to war-wracked Somaliato assist the regime being
propped up by the West.
NATO recently confirmed that it has prolonged an agreement to provide
strategic sealift and airlift support for African (Ugandan, Rwandan
and Burundian) troops to assist Somalias Transitional Federal
Government in the nations civil war.
The blocs European command, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers
Europe (SHAPE), delegated the authority to Joint Command Lisbon to
have the operational lead for NATO engagements with the African
Union and they provide the majority of the personnel to support the
mission. [3]
As with the government of Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan, the
Western-backed Transitional Federal Government doesnt even control
its own capital. Since last week fighting there has led to hundreds
of people being killed and wounded and thousands displaced.
Six days earlier NATO effected a changing of the guard in the Gulf
of Aden and Somali Basin [4] as part of its Operation Ocean Shield,
and five warships of the Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 joined four
from the Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 in Djibouti, where there
are some 2,000 U.S. troops and where AFRICOM bases its Combined
Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa. Djibouti also hosts over 1,000
French soldiers and Frances second largest military base abroad.
On March 10 NATO extended its deployment of warships in the Gulf
of Aden and the Horn of Africa until the end of 2012 in what
originally was portrayed as an ad hoc, short-term deployment when
Operation Ocean Shield was initiated last August following Operation
Allied Protector in March. Instead, NATO has effectively expanded
its over eight-year-old naval operation in the Mediterranean Sea,
Operation Active Endeavor, through the Red Sea and into the Arabian
Sea and is now involved in the Horn of Africa both on land and at
sea.
The Standing NATO Maritime Groups consist of warships from member
states assigned for the occasion the latest deployment in the Gulf
of Aden includes a U.S. ship and is under the command of Allied
Component Command Maritime Naples, one of the two Component Commands
of Allied Joint Force Command Naples.
Allied Joint Force Command Naples (JFC Naples) was inaugurated six
years ago as part of NATO strategy to deploy further south and east,
succeeding Allied Forces Southern Europe (AFSOUTH). The reorganization
was a component of Alliance transformation policy growing out of
the 2002 NATO summit in Prague.
JFC Naples takes in the entire NATO Area of Responsibility (AOR)
which, as will be seen, includes the Balkans, Africa, theMediterranean
Sea region and Iraq.
Its commander is the U.S.s Admiral Mark Fitzgerald, who is also the
top commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe and U.S. Naval Forces
Africa. Earlier this year Fitzgerald was in Kosovo threatening
Serbian authorities in the north, branding them a threat to Kosovo
stability. [5]
NATOs Naples Command has offices and is involved in operations
throughout the Balkans: In Albania, Bosnia,Kosovo, Macedonia and
Serbia.
The NATO Training Mission Iraq is also conducted under JFC Napless
supervision. (Its first commander was General David Petraeus, now
in charge of United States Central Command.)
In his dual capacity as head of U.S. naval forces in Europe and
Africa, Fitzgerald is also in charge of the Pentagons Africa
Partnership Station (APS), created in 2006 and now part of AFRICOM.
Its first deployment was to West Africa, including the Gulf of
Guinea, in 2007 and 2008 when the USS Fort McHenry and HSV (High
Speed Vessel) Swift visited Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Senegal,
Sao Tome and Principe, and Togo.
Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, current U.S. National Security
Adviser, James Jones years ago marked off that expanse of Africa
along its Atlantic Coast as a vital theater in the battle for world
oil resources. [6]
On March 13 the U.S. began military exercises in Ghana which will
last to the end of the month.
The three-week exercise, with about 120 Ghana Armed Forces personnel
and about 95 US Marines, forms part of the Africa Partnership Station
(APS) 2010 project. [7] The operation is the first of three U.S.
Marines will conduct in Africa this year.
The day before the Ghanaian maneuvers began, AFRICOM completed the
Africa Partnership Station East operation at the other end of the
continent.
On its final day a review was held in Mombasa, Kenya with leaders
from Kenya, Namibia, Tanzania and theU.S., which was hosted by
Admiral Mark Fitzgerald of U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa (and
NATOs Allied Joint Force Command Naples).
Two American warships were deployed for the occasion, the frigate
USS Nicholas and HSV Swift.
A Kenyan naval officer described what preceded the exercises in
East Africa:
From Naples, the ships steamed to Souda Bay, Greece, and then through
the Suez Canal to our first Africa Partnership Station engagement
inDjibouti.
During this deployment, Swift and Nicholas covered a total of 12,500
nautical miles and conducted 11 ports of calls; namely, Mombasa,
Kenya; Dar es salaam, Tanzania; Durban and Cape Town, South
Africa;Maputo, Mozambique; Port East, Reunion; Port Louis, Mauritius;
and Port Victoria, Seychelles. [8] The commander of Africa Partnership
Station East, Captain James Tranoris, described its significance:
While APS has been active in East Africa for a few years, this year
marks the inaugural deployment of an international staff to execute
the mission.
AFRICOMs APS has established itself in both the Gulf of Guinea and
the western shores of the Indian Ocean.
At the north end of the continent, Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola,
chairman of the NATO Military Committee, was in Algeria to promote
both the Mediterranean Dialogue partnership and the Alliances new
Strategic Concept.
The first is a NATO program that includes Algeria, Egypt, Israel,
Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia, expanding the blocs influence
and presence from both banks of the Jordan River to well down Africas
western coast.
The second is the formalization of NATOs 21st century military
strategy to further the global, expeditionary character of the
military bloc.
During his address the Chairman underlined the cooperation between
NATO and Algeria in the framework of the Mediterranean Dialogue and
praised Algerias great contribution to the formation of its Officers
in the NATO Regional Cooperation Course (NRCC) at the NATO Defense
College (NDC).
Admiral Di Paola also stressed the need to bring forward Mediterranean
Dialogue views into the New NATO Strategic Concept. [9] Di Paola
also visited Morocco and delivered a speech on the new NATO Strategic
Concept to officers of the Royal Moroccan Army General Staff.
He praised the cooperation between NATO and Morocco in the framework
of the Mediterranean Dialogue and the contribution of the Royal
Moroccan Armed Forces to NATO operations, and urged the ongoing
development of the new Strategic Concept to strengthen the ties
between NATO and its Mediterranean partners.
[10] In 1884 the major European powers gathered at the Berlin
Conference to divide up those parts of Africa that had escaped
colonization and to create a consortium to dominate and exploit an
entire continent and its peoples.
The anti-colonial struggles after the Second World War put an end
to that enforced order, but 126 years later there are ominous
indications that the former colonial masters are nostalgic for their
past power.
Notes
1) Global Energy War: Washingtons New Kissingers African Plans Stop
NATO, January 22, 2009http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/08/26/global-energy-war-washingt...
kissingers-african-plans 2) North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Allied Command Operations March 18, 2010 3) Ibid 4) North Atlantic
Treaty Organization, March 12, 2010 5) 11 Years Later: NATO Powers
Prepare Final Solution In Kosovo Stop NATO, March 18, 2010http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/03/19/11-years-later-nato-powers...
-final-solution-in-kosovo 6) Global Energy War: Washingtons New
Kissingers African Plans 7) Ghana Government, March 18, 2010 8)
United States Africa Command Africa Partnership Station March 17,
2010 9) North Atlantic Treaty Organization International Military
Staff March 15, 2010 10) North Atlantic Treaty Organization
International Military Staff March 18, 2010
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