Washington is quietly setting up at least two new East African drone bases, plus one on the Arabian Peninsula, to support the expanding U.S. shadow war against Islamic militants in Somalia and Yemen. An apparently new facility has been built in Ethiopia. In the island nation of Seychelles, a defunct airfield is being reactivated. A third base is being set up in or near Yemen.
The news, first reported by *The Washington
Post*<http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-building-secret-drone-bases-in-africa-arabian-peninsula-officials-say/2011/09/20/gIQAJ8rOjK_story.html>
and *The Wall Street
Journal*<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904106704576583012923076634.html>,
should come as no surprise to close observers of America’s shadow
war<http://www.thenation.com/article/161936/cias-secret-sites-somalia>
on
the borders of the Indian Ocean. But the base expansion could be met with
outrage by the people most directly affected, especially Africans
themselves. For years, Washington has insisted that it wouldn’t build new
bases in Africa.
The new drone facilities are a small step for a Pentagon and CIA already
heavily invested in the Indian Ocean region. While
mercenaries<http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/u-s-hires-shady-mercenary-for-somali-proxy-war/>
and U.S. allies<http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/06/power-struggle-threatens-u-s-outsourced-somalia-war/>
— “proxies”<http://the-diplomat.com/2011/09/05/america%E2%80%99s-somalia-experiment/4/>
—
do most of the fighting in Somalia and Yemen, American warships, aircraft
and special operations forces also play an important role. U.S. Reaper or
Predator drones have struck militants in
Yemen<http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/07/massive-drone-strike-hits-qaida-cop-station-in-yemen/>
at
least six times total in 2010 and 2011. In Somalia, drones have attacked at
least twice since 2007. U.S. forces have also hit Somalia’s al-Shabab
Islamic group a total of six times, that we know of, using cruise missiles
and Special Forces helicopters.
The American base in the tiny country of Djibouti, north of Somalia, provides
food and fuel<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_enp5xm6GM&feature=player_embedded>
to
the warships and serves as a launching pad for the unmanned vehicles and
choppers. The Djibouti base has been around since 2001. U.S. Special Forces
operated from a small base in Kenya beginning “a few years” prior to
2007, according
to military consultant Tom
Barnett<http://www.esquire.com/features/africacommand0707>.
American commandos also launched attacks from an unspecified Ethiopian
location <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/world/africa/23somalia.html> in
early 2007. The Seychelles drone base was open for business in 2009 and 2010
before temporarily shutting down.
Amid all this activity, Washington insisted it had no plans for new African
bases. “I want to dispel the notion that all of a sudden America is, you
know, bringing all kinds of military to Africa. It’s just simply not true,”
then-President George W. Bush told
reporters<http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hxW3qPqxijgwKjcGZjhCmNNoP3YQ>
in
Ghana in 2008. Bush was trying to reassure African audiences that the new
U.S. Africa Command would not mean an expanded U.S. military presence in
Africa. Africa Command kept its headquarters in Germany, but the U.S.
presence expanded anyways — though many of the forces operate outside of
Africa Command’s purview.
For Washington, the rationale for new bases is clear. “We do not know enough about the leaders of the Al Qaeda affiliates in Africa,” a senior U.S. official told *The Wall Street Journal*. “Is there a guy out there saying, ‘I am the future of Al Qaeda’? Who is the next Osama bin Laden?” If finding and killing the next bin Laden means breaking a promise over African bases, the U.S. seems content with going back on its word.
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]---- Received on Fri Sep 23 2011 - 00:28:15 EDT
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