<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
<blockquote></blockquote>
<p><span style="font-size: x-large;"><strong>U.S. Military Averaging
More Than a Mission a Day in Africa</strong></span><br>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><strong>Documents Reveal Blinding Pace
of Ops in 2013, More of the Same for 2014</strong></span></p>
<p><br>
<b><small><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175823/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_america%27s_non-stop_ops_in_africa/#more">http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175823/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_america%27s_non-stop_ops_in_africa/#more</a></small></small></small></b><br>
By <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/authors/nickturse">Nick Turse</a></p>
<p>The numbers tell the story: 10 exercises, 55 operations, 481
security cooperation activities.</p>
<p>For years, the U.S. military has publicly insisted that its efforts
in Africa are small scale. Its public affairs personnel and commanders
have repeatedly <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175743/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_africom%27s_gigantic_%22small_footprint%22">claimed</a> no
more than a “<a target="_blank"
href="http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=116696">light
footprint</a>” on that continent, including a remarkably modest
presence when it comes to military personnel. They have, however,
balked at specifying just what that light footprint actually consists
of. During an interview, for instance, a U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM)
spokesman once <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175743/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_africom%27s_gigantic_%22small_footprint%22">expressed</a> worry
that tabulating the command’s deployments would offer a “skewed image”
of U.S. efforts there.</p>
<p>It turns out that the numbers do just the opposite.</p>
<blockquote>
</blockquote>
<p>Last year, according AFRICOM commander General David Rodriguez, the
U.S. military carried out a total of 546 “activities” on the continent
-- a catch-all term for everything the military does in Africa. In
other words, it averages about one and a half missions a day. This
represents a 217% increase in operations, programs, and exercises since
the command was <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.africom.mil/Newsroom/Transcript/6544/written-testimony-in-annual-posture-statement-ward">established</a>
in 2008.</p>
<p>In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this
month, Rodriguez noted that the 10 exercises, 55 operations, and 481
security cooperation activities made AFRICOM “an extremely active
geographic command.” But exactly what the command is “active” in doing
is often far from clear.</p>
<p>AFRICOM <a target="_blank" href="http://www.africom.mil/what-we-do">releases</a>
information about only a fraction of its activities. It offers no
breakdown on the nature of its operations. And it <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/05/world/africa/us-takes-training-role-in-africa-as-threats-grow-and-budgets-shrink.html?_r=0">allows</a>
only a <a target="_blank"
href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303824204579421063632222426">handful</a>
of cherry-picked <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.latimes.com/world/africa/la-fg-usmil-africa-20140308,0,4469091.story">reporters</a>
the chance to observe a few select <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/13/us-africa-usa-security-analysis-idUSBREA2C0DL20140313?utm_source=Africa+Center+for+Strategic+Studies+-+Media+Review+for+March+13+2014&utm_campaign=3%2F13%2F2014&utm_medium=email">missions</a>.
The command refuses even to offer a <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175743">count</a> of the
countries in which it is “active,” preferring to keep most information
about what it’s doing -- and when and where -- secret.</p>
<p>While Rodriguez’s testimony offers but a glimpse of the scale of
AFRICOM’s activities, a cache of previously undisclosed military
briefing documents obtained by TomDispatch sheds additional light on
the types of missions being carried out and their locations all across
the continent. These briefings prepared for top commanders and
civilian officials in 2013 demonstrate a substantial increase in
deployments in recent years and reveal U.S. military operations to be
more extensive than previously reported. They also indicate that the
pace of operations in Africa will remain robust in 2014, with U.S.
forces expected again to average far more than a mission each day on
the continent.</p>
<p><strong>The Constant Gardener</strong></p>
<p>U.S. troops carry out a wide range of operations in Africa,
including <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/26/world/africa/somalia-us-airstrike/">airstrikes</a>
targeting suspected militants, <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/06/us-special-forces-libya-somalia">night
raids</a> aimed at kidnapping terror suspects, airlifts of French and
African troops onto the battlefields of <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175818/">proxy wars</a>, and <a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.navytimes.com/article/20131227/NEWS/312270010/3-SEALs-wounded-South-Sudan-back-U-S-">evacuation</a>
operations in destabilized countries. Above all, however, the U.S.
military conducts training missions, mentors allies, and funds, equips,
and advises its local surrogates.</p>
<p>U.S. Africa Command describes its activities as advancing “U.S.
national security interests through focused, sustained engagement with
partners” and insists that its “<a target="_blank"
href="http://www.africom.mil/what-we-do/operations">operations</a>,<a
target="_blank" href="http://www.africom.mil/what-we-do/exercises">
exercises</a>, and <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.africom.mil/what-we-do/security-cooperation-programs">security
cooperation assistance programs</a> support U.S. Government foreign
policy and do so primarily through military-to-military activities and
assistance programs.”</p>
<p><a target="_blank"
href="http://www.africom.mil/what-we-do/exercises/saharan-express">Saharan
Express</a> is a typical exercise that biennially pairs U.S. forces
with members of the navies and coast guards of around a dozen mostly
African countries. Operations include Juniper Micron and Echo Casemate,
missions focused on aiding <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175818/">French and African
interventions</a> in Mali and the Central African Republic. Other
“security cooperation” activities include the State Partnership
Program, which teams African military forces with U.S. National Guard
units and the State Department-funded Africa Contingency Operations
Training and Assistance (ACOTA) program through which U.S. military
mentors and advisors provide equipment and instruction to African units.</p>
<p>Many military-to-military activities and advisory missions are <a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.defensenews.com/article/20131020/SHOWSCOUT04/310200014/AFRICOM-Regionally-Aligned-Forces-Find-Their-Anti-terror-Mission">carried
out</a> by soldiers from the Army’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st
Infantry Division, as part of a “regionally aligned forces” effort that
farms out specially trained U.S. troops to geographic combatant
commands, like AFRICOM. Other training engagements are carried out by
units from across the service branches, including Africa Partnership
Station 13 whose U.S. naval personnel and Marines <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.marforaf.marines.mil/News/NewsArticleDisplay/tabid/5697/Article/153244/aps-marines-engage-with-beninese-soldiers.aspx">teach</a>
skills such as patrolling procedures and hand-to-hand combat
techniques. Meanwhile, members of the Air Force recently <a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.africom.mil/Newsroom/Article/11721/nigerian-and-us-air-forces-partner-for-disaster-relief-seminar">provided
assistance</a> to Nigerian troops in areas ranging from logistics to
airlift support to public affairs.</p>
<p><strong><em><a
href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/images/managed/whatwearedoing_large.jpg"
target="_blank">Click here to see a larger version</a></em></strong><br>
<img src="cid:part1.07050306.03080502@freedomarchives.org" alt=""></p>
<p>Previously undisclosed U.S. Army Africa records reveal a 94%
increase in all activities by Army personnel from 2011 to 2013,
including a 174% surge in State Partnership missions (from 34 to 93)
and a 436% jump in Advise-and-Assist activities including ACOTA
missions (from 11 to 59). Last year, according to a December 2013
document<em>,</em> these efforts involved everything from <a
target="_blank"
href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10000872396390444097904577539362229840378">teaching</a>
Kenyan troops how to use Raven surveillance drones and helping Algerian
forces field new mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles, or MRAPS, to
training Chadian and Guinean infantrymen and aiding France’s ongoing
interventions in West and Central Africa.</p>
<p>AFRICOM spokesman Benjamin Benson refused to offer further details
about these activities. “We do training with a lot of different
countries in Africa,” he told me. When I asked if he had a number on
those “different countries,” he replied, “No, I don’t.” He ignored
repeated written requests for further information. But a cache of
records detailing deployments by members of just the 2nd Brigade Combat
Team, 1st Infantry Division, from June through December 2013,
highlights the sheer size, scope, and sweep of U.S. training missions.</p>
<p>June saw members of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team deployed to Niger,
Uganda, Ghana, and on two separate missions to Malawi; in July, troops
from the team traveled to Burundi, Mauritania, Niger, Uganda, and South
Africa; August deployments included the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Kenya, South Africa, Niger, two missions in Malawi, and three to
Uganda; September saw activities in Chad, Togo, Cameroon, Ghana, São
Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Uganda, and Malawi; in
October, members of the unit headed for Guinea and South Africa;
November’s deployments consisted of Lesotho, Ethiopia, Tanzania,
Uganda, and Guinea; while December’s schedule consisted of activities
in South Sudan, Cameroon, and Uganda, according to the documents. All
told, the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division carried out
128 separate “activities” in 28 African countries during all of 2013.</p>
<p>The records obtained by TomDispatch also indicate that U.S. Army
Africa took part in almost 80% of all AFRICOM activities on the
continent in 2013, averaging more than one mission per day.
Preliminary projections for 2014 suggest a similar pace this year --
418 activities were already planned out by mid-December 2013 --
including anticipated increases in the number of operations and
train-and-equip missions.</p>
<p>Full-scale exercises, each involving U.S. Army troops and members of
the militaries of multiple African countries, are also slated to rise
from 14 to 20 in 2014, according to the documents. So far, AFRICOM has
released information on 11 named exercises scheduled for this year.
These include African Lion in Morocco, Eastern Accord in Uganda,
Western Accord in Senegal, Central Accord in Cameroon, and Southern
Accord in Malawi, all of which include a field training component and
serve as a capstone event for the prior year’s military-to-military
programs. AFRICOM will also conduct at least three maritime security
exercises, including Cutlass Express off the coast of East Africa,
Obangame Express in the Gulf of Guinea, and <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.africom.mil/Newsroom/Article/11857/exercise-saharan-express-2014-commences">Saharan
Express</a> in the waters off Senegal and the Cape Verde islands, as
well as its annual Africa Endeavor exercise, which is designed to <a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.africom.mil/Newsroom/Article/11127/exercise-africa-endeavor-2013-kicks-off-in-zambia">promote</a>
“information sharing” and facilitate standardized communications
procedures within African militaries.</p>
<p>Additionally, U.S. and African Special Operations forces will carry
out an exercise codenamed Silent Warrior 2014 in Germany and have
already completed Flintlock 2014 (since 2005, an annual event). As
part of Flintlock 2014, more than 1,000 troops from <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.africom.mil/Newsroom/Article/11773/african-led-exercise-flintlock-kicks-off-in-niger">18
nations</a>, including Burkina Faso, Canada, Chad, <a target="_blank"
href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303824204579421063632222426">Denmark</a>,
France, Germany, Italy, Mauritania, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway,
Senegal, the United Kingdom, the U.S., and the host nation of Niger,
carried out counterterror training on the outskirts of Niamey, the
capital, as well as at small bases in Tahoua, Agadez, and Diffa.
“Although Flintlock is considered an exercise, it is really an
extension of ongoing training, engagement, and operations that help
prepare our close Africa partners in the fight against extremism and
the enemies that threaten peace, stability, and regional security,”
said Colonel Kenneth Sipperly, the commander of the U.S. Joint Special
Operations Task Force-Trans Sahel, during the Flintlock opening
ceremony.</p>
<p><strong>Locations, Locations, Locations</strong></p>
<p>A 2013 <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175743">investigation</a> by
TomDispatch analyzing official documents and open source information
revealed that the U.S. military was involved with at least 49 of the 54
nations on the African continent during 2012 and 2013 in activities
that ranged from special ops raids to the training of proxy forces. A
map produced late last year by U.S. Army Africa bolsters the findings,
indicating its troops had conducted or planned to conduct “activities”
in all African “countries” during the 2013 fiscal year except for
Western Sahara (a disputed territory in the Maghreb region of North
Africa), Guinea Bissau, Eritrea, Sudan, Somalia, São Tomé and Príncipe,
Madagascar, and Zimbabwe. Egypt is considered outside of AFRICOM’s
area of operations, but did see U.S. military activity in 2013, as did <a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/09/us-raid-al-shabaab-somalia-navy-seals">Somalia</a>,
which now also hosts a small team of U.S. <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-has-deployed-military-advisers-to-somalia-officials-say/2014/01/10/b19429f2-7a20-11e3-af7f-13bf0e9965f6_story.html">advisors</a>.
Other documents indicate Army troops actually deployed to São Tomé and
Príncipe, a <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=54908">country</a>
that regularly <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=72440">conducts</a>
activities with the U.S. Navy.</p>
<p>AFRICOM is adamant that the U.S. military has only one base on the
continent: Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti. Official documents examined by
TomDispatch, however, make reference to bases by other names: forward
operating sites, or FOSes (long-term locations); cooperative security
locations, or CSLs (through which small numbers of U.S. troops
periodically rotate); and contingency locations, or CLs (which are used
only during ongoing missions).</p>
<p>AFRICOM has repeatedly denied requests by TomDispatch for further
information on the numbers or locations of FOSes, CSLs, and CLs, but
official documents produced in 2012 make reference to seven cooperative
security locations, including one in Entebbe, Uganda, a location from
which U.S. contractors have flown secret surveillance missions,
according to an investigation by the <em>Washington Post</em>.
Information released earlier this year by the military also makes
references to at least nine “forward operating locations,” or FOLs in
Africa.</p>
<p><strong>We Know Not What They Do</strong></p>
<p>“What We Are Doing,” the title of a December 2013 military document
obtained by TomDispatch, offers answers to questions that AFRICOM has
long sought to avoid and provides information the command has worked to
keep under wraps. So much else, however, remains in the shadows.</p>
<p>From 2008 to 2013, the number of missions, exercises, operations,
and other activities under AFRICOM’s purview has skyrocketed from <a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.africom.mil/Newsroom/Transcript/6544/written-testimony-in-annual-posture-statement-ward">172</a>
to <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.armed-services.senate.gov/download/rodriguez_03-06-14">546</a>,
but little substantive information has been made public about what
exactly most of these missions involved and just who U.S. forces have
trained. Since 2011, U.S. Army Africa alone has taken part in close to
1,000 “activities” across the continent, but independent reporters have
only been on hand for a tiny fraction of them, so there are limits to
what we can know about them beyond military talking points and official
news releases for a relative few of these missions. Only later did it
become clear that the United States extensively <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/24/world/africa/in-mali-coup-leaders-seem-to-have-uncertain-grasp-on-power.html">mentored</a>
the military officer who overthrew Mali’s elected government in 2012,
and that the U.S. <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.africom.mil/Newsroom/Article/7727/750-congolese-soldiers-graduate-from-us-led-milita">trained</a>
a Congolese commando battalion <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=13308&LangID=E">implicated</a>
by the United Nations in mass rapes and other <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-trained-congolese-troops-committed-rapes-and-other-atrocities-un-says/2013/05/13/9781dd88-bbfe-11e2-a31d-a41b2414d001_story.html">atrocities</a>
during that same year, to cite two examples.</p>
<p>Since its <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_wires/2008Feb19/0,4675,USAfricaCommand,00.html">inception</a>,
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175574/">U.S.
Africa Command</a> has consistently <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.africom.mil/NEWSROOM/Article/10010/official-dod-seeks-small-footprint-in-africa">downplayed</a>
its <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=116696">role</a>
on the <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175743/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_africom%27s_gigantic_%22small_footprint%22">continent</a>.
Meanwhile, far from the press or the public, the officers running its
secret operations have privately been <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175743/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_africom%27s_gigantic_%22small_footprint%22">calling</a>
Africa “the battlefield of tomorrow, today.”</p>
<p>After years in the dark, we now know just how “extremely active” --
to use General David Rodriguez’s phrase -- AFRICOM has been and how
rapidly the tempo of its missions has increased. It remains to be seen
just what else we don't know about U.S. Africa Command’s exponentially
expanding operations.</p>
<em>Nick Turse is the managing editor of </em><a target="_blank"
href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/">TomDispatch.com</a><em> and a
fellow at the Nation Institute. A 2014 </em><a target="_blank"
href="http://www.ithaca.edu/news/releases/journalists-glenn-greenwald-and-jeremy-scahill-named-to-i.f.-stone-hall-of-fame:-john-carlos-frey-and-nick-turse-share-annual-izzy-award-36968/#.UxyUHYVl7Kf"><em>Izzy
Award</em></a><em> winner, his</em><em> pieces have appeared in the </em><a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/10/opinion/for-america-life-was-cheap-in-vietnam.html?_r=0">New
York Times</a><em>, the </em><a target="_blank"
href="http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/24/opinion/la-oe-turse-afghanistan-and-vietnam-20120424">Los
Angeles Times</a>, <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.thenation.com/afghanistan">the Nation</a>, <em>at the</em>
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23427726">BBC</a>
<em>and </em><a target="_blank"
href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175818/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_american_proxy_wars_in_africa/"><em>regularly</em></a><em>
at </em><em>TomDispatch.</em><em> He is the author most recently of
the </em><em>New York Times</em><em> bestseller </em><a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1250045061/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20">Kill
Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam</a><em> </em><em>(just
out in paperback).</em>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
</div>
</body>
</html>