The commander of US Air Forces in Europe and Africa told reporters Wednesday that the US is considering moving its drone base in Niger following the July 26 coup that ousted President Mohamed Bazoum.
“There are several locations I’ll say that we’re looking at, but nothing’s firmed up. We have talked to some countries about it,” said Gen. James Hecker, according to Defense One.
The US’s main drone base in Niger, known as Air Base 201, cost $110 million to build and $20 million – $30 million each year to maintain. According to The Intercept’s Nick Turse, who focuses on US military operations in Africa, Air Base 201 is “the linchpin of the US military’s archipelago of bases in North and West Africa and a key part of America’s wide-ranging intelligence, surveillance, and security efforts in the region.”
Hecker said the Air Force was waiting to see how diplomacy with the post-coup government plays out. He said the “diplomatic solution is going pretty well right now.”
There are signs that the US would be willing to cooperate with the post-coup government, led by Gen. Abdourahamane Tchiani. The Biden administration has yet to formally label the situation in Niger a coup, which would require the US to cut off all military assistance.
CNN reported last month that the US was considering issuing a waiver if it declared a coup to continue US military operations in the country, where about 1,100 US troops are stationed.
US military flights were initially grounded after the coup, but Hecker said most operations have resumed at this point. The Pentagon on Thursday insisted that the US has only resumed surveillance flights, not counterterrorism operations.
You are a national treasure Carlton!
Take your destabilising terrorist base home with you.
But leave the air conditioned trailers. Wagner is gonna need them.👌
“The Biden administration has yet to formally label the situation in Niger a coup, which would require the US to cut off all military assistance.”
A change in a government the US doesn’t like is a “coup”. Any change in a government funded and facilitated by the US is a peaceful, just and popular revolution.
It actually very simple. The CIA just changes any foreign government that does not kiss Washingtons ass.
Well, in a nutshell….. EXACTLY!
Crime Institute of America.
OR if said country has Uncle Sam over a barrel.
Resist. Do not cooperate with totalitarian military empire that poses as a democracy. Organize rhe most massive voter turnout in US history and write in friends. Organize a constituent assembly when this first step toward rapid controlled evolution is complete. If you have a better route to surviving capitalist species suicide post it below. I’ll help.
I like your ideas but I fear that people like us are tilting at windmills.
Remember that Don Quixote acted on his vision of impending problems… He leaped on his horse backwards and then rode off in all directions at once.
We have now reached the point he was so worried about. Together we are accelerating toward an asymptotic cusp with extinction on the other side. Does humanity have a species level survival instinct? Probably not, yet we do not know until we try.
Congratulations GC,you sound like some radicals I knew and worked with in the late Sixties. We obviously did not have much success then and I fear that we will not have much now. Our only chance is a huge national strike taking money away from the ruling class. most folks do not have enough put aside to cover them for loss of income.That is our problem plus a lack of nerve and guts.
With the Capitalist ruling class massive edge in money and control and the permanent corruption of our political process what the hell are we supposed to do? Please clue me in.
Agriculture is the foundation culture. Regenerative agriculture stores carbon in the soil. If each person raises 10 percent of needed food while storing carbon there would be a slowdown of climate change. Large corporatist agriculture requires trucking, super markets, expensive chemical inputs and expensive machines.
Cultural strength results from living well in balance with Earth. Learning to supply personal necessities required to live in balance with Earth does not imply jumping from zero to one hundred percent in one step. Regenerative agriculture leads to a regenerative economy. Organize cooperative efforts on empty lots near bus lines. Sidestep corporatism and corrupt government. Build a different way of life and stop climate change and remove poison residues from your food by growing your own.
Corporatism is actually very weak. It will adapt to people raising one percent of their own food. Much more than that will begin to noticeably weaken the grip of corporatism. People will come together rapidly when a simple thing like raising food is too much for a very fragile system dependent on passive consumers.
Humongous carbon capture and sequestering it in soil is possible by people raising their own food. Atmospheric carbon reduction by corporate or government design is too late to help anything at all.
Agriculture is the physical root cause of all environmental and ecological problems on Earth. I realize that’s not what you were discussing, but since almost everyone thinks agriculture is natural and worships it, I had to say that.
And BTW, growing plants will be totally ineffective in combating the climate crisis if humans don’t get rid of industrial society. Burning fossil fuels puts so much greenhouse gases into the atmosphere that no number of plants or soil could possibly come close to absorbing a significant amount. The problem is our lifestyle.
Regenerative agriculture stores carbon in the soil. A regenerative economy based on regenerative agriculture is the only known way to avoid the climate crises.
Luckily, 70% of the world’s food on the table is grown on 25% of the arable land by human scale agriculture. War and colonial domination are at the root of famine and chaos of still existing population explosions. Those who produce food the old way will most easily adapt to carbon capture bounty.
Not giving up my Harley!… FTW!
Organize rhe most massive voter turnout in US history and write in friends.
I agree with part of what you say. But voting for friends would mean that an R or D would still win. Vote third party.
Vote with your feet!.. Siberia here I come! 🇷🇺
Move the base to someplace in the U.S. where the rich live.
Good one. That’d really piss them off.
Thanks!
All this military crap is mainly for their benefit. If they get the benefits, they should have to pay the price, and I don’t mean just money.
As to pissing them off, I’d rather do what I learned a long time ago: the best way to harm a rich person is to make them into a poor person. That’s my version of “eat the rich.”
NOW we know why Victoria visited Niger, and came back in sorts.
I missed that. I bet she was cute in sorts.
the US is considering moving its drone base in Niger following the July 26 coup
trillion dollars a year budget, one might think that pentagon could simply do what they want wherever they want. and it is a little late in the game for them to pretend that they are the white-hats of the world