Cynthia McKinney: U.S. war machine pervades Africa
by Cynthia McKinney
Most people know about being “sleepless in Seattle.” Well, I am “snowed in in Seattle!” But even 6 inches of snow in Seattle don’t keep me from becoming steamed when I read the latest news reports on the activities of the U.S. war machine:
And at the same time, U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta admits in a press conference that he believes that the annual number of sexual assaults in the U.S. military could number as high as 19,000. This is from the administration that shamefully accused the Libyan Jamahiriya military of issuing Viagra to its soldiers and using rape as a weapon.
And finally, coming hot on the heels of an Algeria-ISP report that the Obama administration offered to reconstitute the Libyan military, forming desert troops, special forces and a Libyan air force, tunisiefocus.com reports that U.S. troops are already in Libya – in Brega, Ras Lanouf and Sirte – in order to secure Libyan oil for Western markets at a very cheap price. Further, these reports indicate that U.S. troops are at Mitiga Air Base east of Tripoli and that NATO helicopters and war planes fly over Libyan towns, surveilling everything, including parties held by Libyans and that drones launched from a secret base in the Libyan desert surveille Libya and neighboring countries.
Interestingly, the presence of U.S. troops was reported in several African, Libyan and Russian online sites, yet there was no response from either Malta or the U.S. In fact, the Russian site za-afriku.ru as late as Jan. 19, 2012, wrote, “The administration of the United States still has not refuted a lot of messages in various media for the transfer of 12,000 troops on Malta as a preliminary step to the further redeployment in Libya in order to control the deteriorating situation in the country.”
I am pleased to report that both Malta and the U.S. embassy in Malta, while neglecting the many reports out there describing U.S. and NATO activities in Libya, felt compelled to respond to my report of this information in apparently coordinated responses. The government of Malta stated in its one line response, “The allegations are completely false.” The U.S. embassy in Malta followed suit.
Both Malta and the U.S. embassy in Malta, while neglecting the many reports out there describing U.S. and NATO activities in Libya, felt compelled to respond to my report.
However, I want to stress that while the responses are welcome and appreciated, given events of the recent past, it is U.S. activities in Libya that are of utmost concern at this moment. All U.S. troops must be brought home, yet the following video was posted today of the U.S. war machine on the roll, destination unknown:
As you watched that video (one of four YouTube videos of the same train, this one made by Andrew Tuckman, who wrote: “I began filming this after a dozen or so train cars went by on a stretch of track south of Santa Cruz, California. Where are the military vehicles going? Why are they being shipped? What could this possibly be for? Barack Obama, what are you up to?”), I hope you thought about the number of teachers or nurses or solar heating systems that could be procured with the money wasted on this massive number of tanks, going where?
Drone strikes occur in Somalia and bases are expanding to the Arabian Peninsula. Even worse, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), an adjunct to the U.S. war machine, has affiliates all over the world – just ask Nicaragua and Venezuela about their experiences with the NED
Does the Obama administration plan an African continent-wide Plan Colombia? Why such a militarization of U.S. relationships all over the world – and even here at home? Will chaos and wars – like what is happening in Libya today – be created all over Africa and the rest of Asia?
Does the Obama administration plan an African continent-wide Plan Colombia? Will chaos and wars – like what is happening in Libya today – be created all over Africa and the rest of Asia?
Last week, I sent a video of Amnesty International admitting that the allegation of “African mercenaries” in Libya was a lie; at the time, it was the U.S. and NATO that had employed mercenaries – not only the Qataris, U.S. contractors, Italians, French and British special forces, but also including the members of the National Transitional Council. That message also included a video of an African beaten to death by these Libyan U.S./NATO allies.
Tell the White House that you will cast your vote for peace – to stop the drones and bring our troops home.
For news from, by and about Cynthia McKinney, former Georgia congresswoman and Green Party presidential candidate, subscribe to her Updates at http://lists.allthingscynthiamckinney.com/listinfo.cgi/updates-allthingscynthiamckinney.com. She can be reached at Cynthia@runcynthiarun.org.
Martin Luther King Day Special on KPFA Jan. 16, 2012, 8 a.m., featuring an interview with Cynthia McKinney by host Minister of Information JR Valrey
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I don't believe that there are US troops in Libya.. Marsa Brega, Sirte and Ras Lanouf have been operational for nearly two months and all foreign oil companies including Hess, Marathon, Occidental, Dutch Shell, and Conoco Phillips are back at work
Dear Cynthia:
Thank you for this article. There was a time in which I would have agreed with you and believed what you wrote. Your reporting is accurate, Based soley on what you have researched and "read", then opined. Yet your knowledge of war, war strategy and what is actually happening is "off ".
Have you any loved ones or friends that have served in the Armed Forces during these conflicts you speak of? Certain events occur during conflict that are guarded by National Security. Have you been to Libya, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan? Have you sat in on negotiations with these countries?
I like your writing and you are entitled to your opinion. However, when it comes to smallwars and National Security, I suggest you write about something else. You could not be further from the truth on many points you make in your article. Further more, your opinion is misleading and one sided. Is this objective writing when you present just one side of a story? Is this good Journalism?
(continued)
Opinions are usually one-sided, Julia. Ms. McKinney has a right to voice her opinion as an American. Being a military-industrial complex insider would make her opinion no more valid and simply prone to career bias.
Also, Ms. McKinney would be seriously hobbled if she changed her career to journalism as you suggest. The US just lost 27 points in worldwide freedom of the press rankings. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post…
We are also not doing as well as we should in Transparency International's Corruption Ranking. So I hope Ms. McKinney keeps doing what she is doing wherever she wants to do it. (Even if you don't like Seattle.) I suggest you join her in pushing for progressive reforms.
(continued)
If you are interested in conflict, I suggest you become a journalist that focusses on this subject. You might be amazed and you would get to leave dreary Seattle.
For what it is worth, I do like your style and think you would be good at writing the truth.
Best Regards,
Julia Hugo Rachel
The article was written not to persuade but expose what is going on in another part of the world.
Just Google Africom and you can see for yourself
The origin of this story is Press TV, an Iranian chanel, the Photo ilustrating the "hunderstds of US troops, incluing two on bicycles, are either Australian or German.
BUT….Please don't let this get in the way a good story, perhaps there are 25,000 or 50,000 US soldiers there already?
Just Google Press TV and you can see for yourself
Call me old-fashioned but checking the veracity of your sources used to be a cardinal rule of journalism
Go look at Veterans Today for deeper insight into the Obama Assassination attempt.
The troops mentioned would hardly be australian or german, what with obviously African soldiers. Cant be so hard to work out who they are. First guess would be US?? No idea of where they are.
What do the alleged number of sexual assaults, while reprehensible, have to do with our overall military responsibility? And as for securing Libyan oil for a "Very cheap price," where is the "cheap" oil that the war with Iraq was supposed to have produced? Maybe it is really about more than oil. If it were all oleo-centric, gas/petrol would be 1/4 what we are paying now.
Jim, I think she mentioned the sexual assaults in the US military to point our the hypocrisy of war machine politicians and media. (I don't think she was suggesting that the military itself was hypocritical. Panetta is certainly reported here as being more transparent than Gaddafi was.)
As for the oil, the 'cheap' part is the price oil companies are paying Libya. That does not trickle down to consumers. Gaddafi was threatening to nationalize oil fields in Libya prior to the NATO attack.
That should have been 'point out' in the first sentence of my comment.
I believe the attack on Libya was due to Gaddaffis growing support to bring back the African Dinar (gold coin) as the trading standard. Just like Saddam wanted to trade oil in Euros.
Either way, the world is under US rule of thumb unti someone says enough is enough.
The U.S. Infiltration of Africa began with the establishment of repatriated African-America slave colonies of the 1700 and 1800s that were blind to their actually part in colonialists' plans by accepting education and positions of authority and social elitism over indigenous Africans. They initially were discouraged from intermixing with the indigenous people, and some repatriated owned indigenous slaves. It was when they were able to influence, through their authority and elitism, the indigenous people to adopt western religion, ideology and education is when they began intermarrying with indigenous Africans. They helped colonialist establish the commercial influence and dependency between Africa and the west that has evolved into what you see today.
The descendants of these repatriated people rose to power and took over political leadership in several countries, in stealth mode. . So while they may have assimilated and adopted indigenous culture, names and bloodlines they still carried those same western ideologies and blindness their ways were in detriment to the indigenous people and culture. This bloodline and influence, today, exists across the continent. Many notable AFRICANS coming out of the sub-Saharan region of modern today, or recent, Africa are of this bloodline. They are among the most influential, elite, families on the continent and have direct familial ties with black/African descended elite families in the Americas and in Europe. The world knows them as Africans, but their bloodline and ideological heritage is purely Western, and American! They continue to assist in the imperial initiatives of the United States and the European empire. They are indifferent as long as they retain their social and political influence and their wealth.
This has made it all the easier for what is taking place today. This, current day, War Machine is a continuum of more than a 100 years work of penetration that could not have bee done without the puppet 'black face' society formed by Africa-American slaves repatriated to Africa.
Anon – Most interesting. Are you capable of documenting these statements or are they allegations/theories?
Have you even bothered researching the topic? It's all documented. Research the names of any of the resulting ethnio-cultural groups. The information is out there already; it's not mad eup.
Strategy: posture and yield.
Repatriated African-American slaves haven't been the only ones part of 'the plan', but 'colonial era rape' evolved mulatto communities/populations have played a part in this, too.
And while all of the 'new breed' populations were also disenfranchised/oppressed by the whites, they were still rewarded from their middle-men/buffer dispositions as being the 'masks' through which white colonialists could use to conquer Indigenous Africa. As long as the 'puppet societies' were getting compensated, retained their elite status via the European social hierarchy, over the rest of the population, they gladly oblige.
"Repatriated African-American slaves" are the upholders of White Supremacy
To add as well as Continental Africans; (Past) Pres., Mobuto Sese Soko, Samual K. Doe, (Present) Paul Kagame & Prime Mini., Morgan Tsvangirai just to name a few
Repatriated African started the process of assimilating Africans to Westerners. Some native born African with African, even full African, names are descendents of repatriated Africans. Others simply come from a long line of assimilated full indigenous families.