It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
(visit the link for the full news article)
U.S. military planners have begun to help organize a multinational proxy force to intervene next year in Mali... contingent on the U.N. Security Council’s endorsement... U.N. officials and diplomats from other countries have said that U.N. approval is likely...
Amanda J. Dory, the Pentagon’s deputy assistant secretary for Africa, ... emphasized that no U.S. ground troops would enter Mali, but she would not rule out... U.S. warplanes to transport African troops or provide... aerial cover
Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
Okay, when Bush stood before the nation and said the United States would bring justice TO the enemy, I think even the most die hard of us believed there to be some implied TIME issues and LIMITS to WHO this applied to. It would seem our military and foreign policy is to pursue these people to the ends of the Earth AND till the end of time. Anyone else think this is getting just a bit too much??
Originally posted by grey580
I'm shocked.
Mali doesn't have any oil.
I wonder why we are bothering.
Originally posted by Unity_99
How can they afford too? Where are the getting the money to fund this?
n 22 March 2012, a group of junior soldiers seized control of the country's presidential palace and declared the government dissolved and its constitution suspended.[11] On 6 April 2012, rebels from the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) declared the secession of a new state, Azawad, from Mali.[12] Shortly after, the MNLA were sidelined by Islamist groups associated with Al-Qaeda, and dropped their demands for secession. Mali is currently being led by an interim government led by former President of the General assembly Dioncounda Traoré. Plans to re-take the north with international assistance are being formulated, after which the interim government plans to hold the long-delayed national elections.
Originally posted by SloAnPainful
I wasn't too familiar with Mali until I read the wiki on it...
...Plans to re-take the north with international assistance are being formulated, after which the interim government plans to hold the long-delayed national elections.
Is this what we are prepping for? May be I am a bit confused and some one could inform me just on what the big issue is?
Sen. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on Africa, called northern Mali “the largest territory controlled by Islamic extremists in the world.”
Other U.S. officials said al-Qaeda’s North African affiliate, which for years attracted limited global attention, poses an increasing threat. The group has become well-stocked with weapons smuggled out of Libya after the NATO-led war there last year. It finances its operations by smuggling rackets and by kidnapping foreigners for ransom.
At the same time, U.S. officials acknowledged that the group has not demonstrated an ability to launch terrorist attacks outside the region. Some independent analysts have questioned whether the administration’s strategy could backfire by embroiling the United States in an intractable local conflict.
AFRICAN MONETARY FUND, AFRICAN CENTRAL BANK, AFRICAN INVESTMENT BANK
The US$30 billion frozen by Mr Obama belong to the Libyan Central Bank and had been earmarked as the Libyan contribution to three key projects which would add the finishing touches to the African federation – the African Investment Bank in Syrte, Libya, the establishment in 2011 of the African Monetary Fund to be based in Yaounde with a US$42 billion capital fund and the Abuja-based African Central Bank in Nigeria which when it starts printing African money will ring the death knell for the CFA franc through which Paris has been able to maintain its hold on some African countries for the last fifty years. It is easy to understand the French wrath against Gaddafi.
The African Monetary Fund is expected to totally supplant the African activities of the International Monetary Fund which, with only US$25 billion, was able to bring an entire continent to its knees and make it swallow questionable privatisation like forcing African countries to move from public to private monopolies. No surprise then that on 16-17December 2010, the Africans unanimously rejected attempts by Western countries to join the African Monetary Fund, saying it was open only to African nations.
The rebels in Libya are in the middle of a life or death civil war and Moammar Gadhafi is still in power and yet somehow the Libyan rebels have had enough time to establish a new Central Bank of Libya and form a new national oil company. ...What a skilled bunch of rebels - they can fight a war during the day and draw up a new central bank and a new national oil company at night without any outside help whatsoever. ...Apparently someone felt that it was very important to get pesky matters such as control of the banks and control of the money supply out of the way even before a new government is formed.
Originally posted by pheonix358
reply to post by SloAnPainful
China has huge interests in Africa. This is just the US getting a foot in the door, perhaps a military base or three. It is simply a counter to the Chinese push.
Africa the US wasn't very much interest in so George Kennan who was the Head of the Policy Planning Staff recommended that it be handed over to Europe to "exploit" - that was his word - for Europe to exploit for its own reconstruction... As for the Middle East, the US took for granted that it would take it over because of what they called its "stupendous source of strategic power" and "one of the great material prizes in world history".
Originally posted by antonia
reply to post by grey580
Africa is teeming with rare earth materials. Considering our need for these materials it makes perfect sense.