[Mideast + Africa] Getting rid of Bongo- but at what Brice?

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > [Mideast + Africa] Getting rid of Bongo- but at what Brice?

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Votskomit: Jun 26, 2013

Centrist Committee posted:

ban this subversion before it’s too late!!!

Tiktok recently appointed some ex military, ex NSA and ex CIA people to help keep their platform safe from

# ? Aug 6, 2023 21:02

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Jun 7, 2024 21:05

Centrist Committee: Aug 6, 2019

Votskomit posted:

Tiktok recently appointed some ex military, ex NSA and ex CIA people to help keep their platform safe from

lol at sending your operations people to give the cpc even more insight into the machinations of your dumb, crumbling empire

# ? Aug 6, 2023 21:17

Megamissen: Jul 19, 2022; any post can be a kannapost
if you want it to be

i say swears online posted:

WSJ put out a pretty big article. paywall free link

https://archive.ph/MNsi0

the us government is such a clown show

# ? Aug 6, 2023 21:39

Frosted Flake: Sep 13, 2011; Semper Shitpost Ubique

The US loves creating states so weak the Praetorian Guard can usurp the throne and acclaim their own Emperor.

I suppose it makes it easier to buy their natural resources or whatever but it�s a foundation built on sand.

e: There is an entire branch of the Saudi military that only exists to fight the rest of the military.

# ? Aug 6, 2023 22:49

DiscountDildos: Nov 8, 2017

https://twitter.com/statiq_q/status/1688308810174140416?s=20

# ? Aug 7, 2023 01:00

Atrocious Joe: Sep 2, 2011

Niamey was fun today

https://twitter.com/BBCAfrica/status/1688235194887598081?s=20
https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1688236407268007937?s=20

# ? Aug 7, 2023 01:01

Tsitsikovas: Aug 2, 2023

i say swears online posted:

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/7261612443120520453

lol he calls out kamala

It's real exciting to see other nations emphatically tell the west to gently caress off.

# ? Aug 7, 2023 01:04

crepeface: Nov 5, 2004; r*p*f*c*

Votskomit posted:

Tiktok recently appointed some ex military, ex NSA and ex CIA people to help keep their platform safe from

lots of NATO guys too

https://twitter.com/MintPressNews/status/1640712011398119424?s=20

quote:

Since 2020, there has been a wave of former spooks, spies and mandarins appointed to influential positions within TikTok, particularly around content and policy � some of whom, on paper at least, appear unqualified for such roles.

For example, while simultaneously being the Content Policy Lead for TikTok Canada, Alexander Corbeil is also the vice president of the NATO Association of Canada, a NATO-funded organization chaired by former Canadian Minister of Defense David Collenette. In order to join TikTok, Corbeil left his job at the SecDev Foundation, a U.S. State Department-funded security think tank. Corbeil�s work focused on Middle Eastern security and in particular on the war in Syria and what NATO�s role should be.

Another NATO-linked new recruit is Ayse Ko�ak, a Global Product Policy manager at the company. Before joining TikTok last year, she spent three years at NATO. Like Corbeil, Ko�ak had special expertise in Middle Eastern politics, including a year�s tour in Iraq as the organization�s deputy senior civilian representative.

Foard Copeland, who works on TikTok�s trust and safety policy, is also an ex-NATO man. Copeland previously worked as a desk officer for NATO, as well as for the Department of Defense. Between 2011 and 2021, he also worked for U.S. contractor Development Alternatives Incorporated (DAI), spending much of that time in Afghanistan. DAI has long been accused of being a CIA front group, perhaps with some justification. In 2009, for example, DAI agent Alan Gross was arrested in Cuba and sentenced to 15 years in prison for spying, espionage, and his part in efforts to destabilize the government.

Perhaps the most worrying NATO alumnus, from a public perspective, is new Feature Policy Manager Greg Andersen. According to his own LinkedIn profile, until 2019, Andersen worked on �psychological operations� for NATO.

# ? Aug 7, 2023 01:17

mawarannahr: May 21, 2019

crepeface posted:

lots of NATO guys too

https://twitter.com/MintPressNews/status/1640712011398119424?s=20

Ayse Ko�ak is a Turk. red loving flag

# ? Aug 7, 2023 01:24

Some Guy TT: Aug 30, 2011; Can't post for 2 hours!

Votskomit posted:

South Africa likes to sell itself as this rainbow nation, but we were an openly fascist state 30 years ago. That ideology doesn't die overnight.

Here's a good article with some stats that show the contradiction between the pro-equality legal system, compared to the largely homophobic population:

https://saiia.org.za/youth-blogs/hate-crimes-against-members-of-the-lgbtqia-community-in-south-africa/

For a lot of Africans who tend socially conservative, homosexuality is seen as a deviant import by the Whites. It's why a lot of the Russian anti woke messaging works here.

For a lot of white South Africans who yearn for apartheid, homosexuality is seen as a deviant import by the communist liberals. It's why a lot of the Fox News anti woke messaging works here.

Most of the queer Africans I know are staunchly pro EFF, or disappointed in the EFF for being too mild on the pro LGBTQ messaging, because other parties are worse. From my limited experience, most of the gains for LGBTQ rights in ZA has been due to the constitutional court ordering it, rather than a party pushing for it.

sheesh next youre gonna be telling us ukraine doesnt love queer people either

# ? Aug 7, 2023 01:33

Some Guy TT: Aug 30, 2011; Can't post for 2 hours!

i say swears online posted:

WSJ put out a pretty big article. paywall free link

https://archive.ph/MNsi0

quote:

Bazoum, elected in 2021 in Niger�s first democratic transfer of power, had been feted in Washington as a reliable partner against the twin threats of jihadist attacks and Russia�s growing influence.

In sonorous French, the former interior and foreign minister would hit some of Washington�s favorite notes. He rattled off gender-inequality statistics at events hosted by the State Department and the Gates Foundation, and regaled audiences with his efforts to educate girls in a country whose birthrate is the world�s highest, at seven children for every woman.

After coup leaders in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso shifted toward Russia, Bazoum made clear he stood with America.

Niger registered just 114 attacks from jihadist groups last year, while Burkina Faso and Mali combined registered some 2,000, according to data collected by the nonprofit Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project and analyzed by the Pentagon-funded Africa Center for Strategic Studies.

�More bases? We don�t need them,� he said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal shortly after he was elected.

huh weird how the article just jumps straight from talking about gender inequality to talking about terrorism and military bases without trying to quantify what if anything this guy had actually been doing about womens education and the birthrate

# ? Aug 7, 2023 01:39

gradenko_2000: Oct 5, 2010; HELL SERPENT; Lipstick Apathy

https://twitter.com/djuric_zlatko/status/1688288922567135232?t=jjHs-em6Xa83wMaKUIHrlg&s=19

Huh weird Al-Qaeda just happens to pop up where the US has interests???

# ? Aug 7, 2023 02:42

8623: Aug 7, 2023

nice to see the wagner group spawning splinter cells. they're going places!

# ? Aug 7, 2023 02:46

Frosted Flake: Sep 13, 2011; Semper Shitpost Ubique

gradenko_2000 posted:

https://twitter.com/djuric_zlatko/status/1688288922567135232?t=jjHs-em6Xa83wMaKUIHrlg&s=19

Huh weird Al-Qaeda just happens to pop up where the US has interests???

lol

# ? Aug 7, 2023 03:11

PawParole: Nov 16, 2019

https://twitter.com/addisstandard/status/1688264379400151040
https://twitter.com/Amhara_News/status/1688252581770829824

PawParole has issued a correction as of 03:18 on Aug 7, 2023

# ? Aug 7, 2023 03:15

Frosted Flake: Sep 13, 2011; Semper Shitpost Ubique

Didn't Ethiopia have a strong, centralized state at some point?

# ? Aug 7, 2023 03:53

gradenko_2000: Oct 5, 2010; HELL SERPENT; Lipstick Apathy

Frosted Flake posted:

Didn't Ethiopia have a strong, centralized state at some point?

Derg ftw

# ? Aug 7, 2023 04:14

BrutalistMcDonalds: Oct 4, 2012; Lipstick Apathy

Atrocious Joe posted:

BrutalistMcDonalds do you have anything on the EFFs international orientation or relationships with Western capital. the criticism seems to be that the EFF is encouraging state bailouts of an element of the national bourgeoisie that include Malema as a member. That seems like evidence that Malema is a turncoat, but not necessarily a fascist? Is development of a national bourgeoisie not part of the point of a bourgeoise state in a semi-colonial country? The SACP being in coalition with a bourgeois government for decades seems like they support the development of a national bourgeoisie.

i don't know about his relations with western capital other than he attended a meeting in london with some investors in 2015:

https://www.news24.com/fin24/john-battersby-why-malema-was-a-hit-with-uk-investors-20151201

but what is a fascist? what distinguishes the EFF to me is that they apparently have a strict hierarchical and paramilitary / militaristic structure. i'd like to learn more about this internal structure. i've read that the structure is based on the ANC's paramilitary wing during the anti-apartheid struggle. but that was a paramilitary wing of a political party which commanded it. for the EFF, malema is the commander-in-chief of the EFF. i'll drop some links and you can check it out.

quote:

The EFF is an interesting example in this regard, given its militaristic and hierarchical form of organisation.

For the EFF, delegitimising the ANC at all costs means the worse things get, the better for the party in any social arena. Deepening crisis through disruption is a political strategy. From Parliament to universities, the EFF�s mode of often violent disruptive engagement is becoming central to its political practice and this is also diffusing as a societal norm.

This means the EFF, in the context of the Higher Education Convention, was not willing to rise above its narrow partisan interests and place the interests of the country first. Solutions to take the country forward are not important but short-term political calculation to upstage the ANC state is all that matters � even in a context in which the main protagonist of social dialogue is not even the ANC state. This is not oppositional politics but the politics of wrecking everything because collective societal solutions don�t matter. It also means this short-term strategy will, intentionally and unintentionally, unleash forces that will also clash with the EFF down the road. It is breeding politics that will come back to harm it, assuming it is successful in growing in electoral terms.

[...]

Competitive political escalation for the EFF means: accept its way or face violence. Does this make the EFF fascist? Liberal journalists, some academics and even the South African Communist Party have declared the EFF fascist. The notion of fascism is a slippery concept to define. As an appellation it has multiple meanings, both historically and comparatively. Liberal scholars usually work with a typology of key characteristics to define fascism such as: charismatic leadership, racism, ultra-nationalism, paramilitarism, violence (actual or threatened), anti-parliamentarianism, anti-constitutionalism and anti-Semitism.

This is helpful to a degree, but runs into analytical problems given that context-specific conditions and dynamics shape fascist forces. In the first half of the 20th century it was easy to discern national variations of either Italian fascism or Nazi totalitarianism. Today, fascism is mutating and manifesting in a complex matrix of national and global material conditions. It has arrived dressed in pinstriped suits or sometimes as a suicide bomber. This brings us back to the question: Are those wearing red berets under the EFF banner fascists? Is the main contribution the EFF has made to South African politics merely to draw more taut the line between those for democratic transformation and those against?

The EFF is a contradictory formation and on its current trajectory it is not a visionary nation builder, nor a programmatic force for change, nor a democratic political opposition. Although at some moments it looks good in relation to the kleptocratic Jacob Zuma regime, we should not assume that it is better.

The EFF expresses serious ambiguities in its ideological make-up: constitutional/anti-constitutional, Marxist-Leninist/stakeholder capitalist, male chauvinist/yet appealing to some women, decolonising/yet willing to accept support from white capital. The EFF, like historical fascism, draws its ideas from across the political spectrum. As a result, what it stands for in terms of values, beliefs and ideology is unclear. It makes it up as it goes through the theatre of national politics, expedient political manoeuvring and through its authoritarian populist inventiveness.

https://mg.co.za/article/2017-04-04-the-effs-wrecking-ball-politics-is-fascist-rather-than-left/

also they're going trad. it's very weird:

https://twitter.com/EFF_Limpopo/status/1631609618693496837
https://twitter.com/mohammedyusuf_z/status/1659198888727941124

quote:

Suddenly switching their long-held position on land invasions, the EFF recently released a statement condemning what they deemed an illegal occupation of land belonging to the Bapedi Royal House in Limpopo. Not long ago the party�s commander-in-chief, Julius Malema, backed by EFF parliamentarians, was passionately calling for the poor and homeless to occupy land, regardless of the legal consequences. Four years later, the party�s leadership in Limpopo is rebuking a land occupation in defence of a royal family that wants to enhance its unearned privilege by building a palace and shopping mall.

[...]

The Zulu royal family, led by King Misuzulu kaZwelithini, stands tall as a non-sovereign monarchy with significant cultural influence and political leverage on national politics. Speaking at a media briefing in August last year, Malema argued: �We must jealously protect the unity of the Zulu royal family because it�s one of those black institutions that are still run by black people and led by black people and are run in a dignified manner.�

Once again, Malema spreads the myth that those who share a racial identity, in this instance black identity, will have harmonious political interests. This kind of reductive racialised thinking would have us naively believe that institutions exclusively governed by black people will always work towards the benefit of all black people. Such simplistic thinking overlooks the profound socio-economic divisions among black South Africans, which mould political interests in divergent directions, be it progressive or reactionary.

The class position of the royal family relative to the majority of their �subjects� means that their interests � to maintain their entitlement to power and privilege through semi-feudalism � are often in direct conflict with the interests of KwaZulu-Natal�s general population. In a province continually ravaged by rampant poverty, food insecurity, political violence and climate disasters, the House of Zulu has not used its extravagant wealth to strive for the socio-economic development of the province or the betterment of their �subjects�� material well-being. Instead, the Zulu monarchy has for years used their constitutional position and political influence to economically exploit those within their domain.

The Ingonyama Trust, established as a compromise between political elites, has functioned as an instrument of grand economic exploitation. It is a fund used to manage communal land, supposedly towards the well-being of citizens.

Three million hectares of land fall under the trust, representing 30% of all land in the province, and the Zulu king is the sole trustee. Rather than being a tool for socio-economic development, the Ingonyama Trust has disempowered citizens who live in its domain, restricting people from holding titles to the land of their ancestors. One wonders how the EFF justifies a king, unelected and supremely privileged, to act as the sole trustee of such an influential entity.

BrutalistMcDonalds has issued a correction as of 04:30 on Aug 7, 2023

# ? Aug 7, 2023 04:23

i say swears online: Mar 4, 2005

drat that's fascinating

# ? Aug 7, 2023 04:31

tristeham: Jul 31, 2022

cool zone gang tag guy teaching you socialism

# ? Aug 7, 2023 08:35

Votskomit: Jun 26, 2013

BrutalistMcDonalds posted:

but what is a fascist? what distinguishes the EFF to me is that they apparently have a strict hierarchical and paramilitary / militaristic structure. i'd like to learn more about this internal structure. i've read that the structure is based on the ANC's paramilitary wing during the anti-apartheid struggle. but that was a paramilitary wing of a political party which commanded it. for the EFF, malema is the commander-in-chief of the EFF. i'll drop some links and you can check it out.

They follow democratic centralism with a military styling, this is explained more clearly in their code of conduct.

https://www.effonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/CODE-OF-CONDUCT-06-03-2020.pdf

You can see how they're still democratic with for example their organisational restructures, with their leadership elected by members, and the members voting to expand the size of the central committing and electing new members to that committee. There's lots of interesting clues as to their priorities in this document too:

https://effonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/EFF-2ND-NPA-FINAL-REPORT.pdf

They've been ideologically inconsistent, and there is a mindset of appealing to populism that overrides socialist values sometimes, which sucks. But I still wouldn't call them fascist, merely because I've interacted with a lot of EFF members and they range from Trotskyites to Marxist-Leninists who strongly respect SWCC. I've never interacted with one who didn't seem like they were at least trying to be socialist. Their most active works are to protest for better worker rights, and they've set up a division called the Labour Desk, which helps people resolve disputes with their employers. This has earned them the support of multiple trade unions including SAFTU.

If Malema is a fascist, he's one who managed to somehow gather a bunch of diverse, often queer, working class socialists who prioritise women's rights and nationalisation as his members and allies. Maybe that can still count as fascism somehow, or a new kind of fascism, but, as you say:

BrutalistMcDonalds posted:

it's very weird:

# ? Aug 7, 2023 11:54

PawParole: Nov 16, 2019

Frosted Flake posted:

Didn't Ethiopia have a strong, centralized state at some point?

I can�t think of any. Abyssinia was basically the Holy Roman Empire in Africa, Menelik�s Ethiopia was somewhat less decentralized, and the first civil war began when Haile attempted to rule areas directly using roads the Italians built, but everyone hated him, to the nobility he was a usurper, and to the common people he was a crook.

gradenko_2000 posted:

Derg ftw

At any point the junta had at least 60 percent of the country rebelling against them. I mean they did attempt to centralize but that ended up causing their fall.

# ? Aug 7, 2023 13:18

DancingShade: Jul 26, 2007; by Fluffdaddy

i say swears online posted:

A 1993 report by IRS Special Agent Kevin Moss explained that �there is probable cause to believe that funds in certain bank accounts controlled by Bola Tinubu� represent proceeds of drug trafficking; therefore these funds are forfeitable to the United States.�

wow the grayzone loves civil asset forfeiture

I'm not sure what the USA is going to do with seized US dollars if nobody else is trading with them after they de-dollarize. You can't even make a scrooge mcduck diving vault out of money when its all just spreadsheet cash.

# ? Aug 7, 2023 13:47

DancingShade: Jul 26, 2007; by Fluffdaddy

Votskomit posted:

Tiktok recently appointed some ex military, ex NSA and ex CIA people to help keep their platform safe from

Don't worry they'll stay completely loyal. Don't ask to who though.

# ? Aug 7, 2023 13:48

Gripweed: Nov 8, 2018; Women are wonderful animals, they should be making music and writing novels about having a complex relationship with your mother.

Somebody please tell me who is the good guys in this

# ? Aug 7, 2023 14:14

Megamissen: Jul 19, 2022; any post can be a kannapost
if you want it to be

Gripweed posted:

Somebody please tell me who is the good guys in this

the niger situation? the coup government because they are throwing out the french
the ethiopia situation? its... uuh... complicated

# ? Aug 7, 2023 14:16

Honky Mao: Dec 26, 2012

Megamissen posted:

the niger situation? the coup government because they are throwing out the french
the ethiopia situation? its... uuh... complicated

Yeah but which ethnic group should I cheer for

# ? Aug 7, 2023 14:46

Truga: May 4, 2014; Lipstick Apathy

the robert mueller and rule of law ethnic group

# ? Aug 7, 2023 15:04

stumblebum: May 8, 2022; no, what you want to do is get somebody mad enough to give you a red title you're proud of

Honky Mao posted:

Yeah but which ethnic group should I cheer for

ukrainians

# ? Aug 7, 2023 15:13

Car Hater: May 7, 2007; wolf. bike.
Wolf. Bike.
Wolf! Bike!
WolfBike!
WolfBike!
ARROOOOOO!

Honky Mao posted:

Yeah but which ethnic group should I cheer for

Elephants

# ? Aug 7, 2023 15:18

Zedhe Khoja: Nov 10, 2017; sürgünden selamlar
yıkıcılar ulusuna

Honky Mao posted:

Yeah but which ethnic group should I cheer for

The tuareg are probably the most sympathetic given how badly they got hosed over by everyone, but they aren't really part of equation outside of being the security issue the military is devoted to squashing.

# ? Aug 7, 2023 16:53

i say swears online: Mar 4, 2005

yeah tuareg basically don't exist in niger proper but are mostly in agadez where all the saharan uranium is mined

# ? Aug 7, 2023 17:18

Votskomit: Jun 26, 2013

Libya doesn't like the coup:

http://www.uniindia.com/news/world/libya-vows-not-to-recognize-new-military-rule-in-niger/3025242.html

France doesn't like Burkino Faso liking the coup:

https://www.france24.com/en/africa/20230806-france-suspends-development-and-budget-aid-to-burkina-faso

Good article on people in Northern Nigeria having ties to Niger and being opposed to intervention:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-66420693

# ? Aug 7, 2023 18:31

OhFunny: Jun 26, 2013; EXTREMELY PISSED AT THE DNC

Coup leaders close Niger airspace after deadline to reinstate leader

European airlines are now diverting around Niger.

# ? Aug 7, 2023 19:58

bedpan: Apr 23, 2008

OhFunny posted:

Coup leaders close Niger airspace after deadline to reinstate leader

European airlines are now diverting around Niger.

quote:

A source close to the ousted president told CBS News that Bazoum remained under house arrest, effectively held hostage along with his wife and son, without electricity, running water or cell-phone communication.

these are ordinary prison conditions in america

# ? Aug 7, 2023 20:18

Frosted Flake: Sep 13, 2011; Semper Shitpost Ubique

Funny thing about France in the Sahel. Apparently there are no airbases in Northern Africa that can operate the Rafale, so they had to fly from Metropolitan France and refuel twice just to drop bombs on some guys in tents in Mali.

Depending on the range, Niger might be able to escape NATO bombing them into oblivion like Libya just because of that.

# ? Aug 7, 2023 20:25

PoontifexMacksimus: Feb 14, 2012

crepeface posted:

lots of NATO guys too

https://twitter.com/MintPressNews/status/1640712011398119424?s=20

[/b]

TikTok hiring mandarins, you say?

PawParole posted:

I can�t think of any. Abyssinia was basically the Holy Roman Empire in Africa, Menelik�s Ethiopia was somewhat less decentralized, and the first civil war began when Haile attempted to rule areas directly using roads the Italians built, but everyone hated him, to the nobility he was a usurper, and to the common people he was a crook.

At any point the junta had at least 60 percent of the country rebelling against them. I mean they did attempt to centralize but that ended up causing their fall.

Edit: just so I understand, what period are you referring to by Abyssinia here?

PoontifexMacksimus has issued a correction as of 20:36 on Aug 7, 2023

# ? Aug 7, 2023 20:33

Atrocious Joe: Sep 2, 2011

Frosted Flake posted:

Funny thing about France in the Sahel. Apparently there are no airbases in Northern Africa that can operate the Rafale, so they had to fly from Metropolitan France and refuel twice just to drop bombs on some guys in tents in Mali.

Depending on the range, Niger might be able to escape NATO bombing them into oblivion like Libya just because of that.

The main US logistics hub in West Africa is through Ghana's main airport. If the US wants a greater military presence in the region it may be through Ghana as some of the political and legal groundwork has been laid. I don't know if the France can get in anywhere or if they would tag along with the US.

quote:

In 2018, the US Department of Defense proposed that the US and Ghana agree to a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), a $20 million deal that would allow the US military to expand its presence in Ghana. In March, widespread unhappiness of this agreement swept large sections of the population into the streets; opposition parties, who worried about the possibility that the US would build a military base in the country, raised their objections in parliament. By April, Ghana�s President Nana Akufo-Addo said that his government had �not offered a military base, and will not offer a military base to the United States of America�. The US Embassy in Accra repeated this statement, saying that the �United States has not requested, nor does it plan to establish a military base or bases in Ghana�. The SOFA agreement was signed in May 2018.

It does not require a close reading of the agreement�s text to know that there is in fact the possibility that the US could build a base in the country. Article 5, for instance, states,

quote:
Ghana hereby provides unimpeded access to and use of Agreed facilities and areas to United States forces, United States contractors, and others as mutually agreed. Such Agreed facilities and areas, or portions thereof, provided by Ghana shall be designated as either for exclusive use by United States forces or to be jointly used by United States forces and Ghana. Ghana shall also provide access to and use of a runway that meets the requirements of United States forces.

Through this article, the US is permitted to create its own military facilities in Ghana. By any definition, this means that it can set up a base. The surrender of Ghana�s sovereignty also comes to light where the SOFA agreement states (Article 6) that the US would �be afforded priority in access to and use of Agreed facilities and areas� and that said use and access by others �may be authorised with the express consent of both Ghana and United States forces�.

Furthermore, Article 3 says that US troops �may possess and carry arms in Ghana while on Official duty� and that the US troops shall be accorded �the privileges, exemptions, and immunities equivalent to those accorded to the administrative and technical staff of a diplomatic mission�. In other words, the US troops can be armed and, if they are accused of a crime, they will not be tried in Ghana�s courts.

In March 2018, Ghana�s minister of defence, Dominic Nitiwul, was challenged on a radio station by Kwesi Pratt of the Socialist Forum Ghana (SFG). Nitiwul said that there was nothing peculiar about this agreement, since other African countries � like Senegal � had signed such agreements. Ghana, said Nitiwul, had signed similar agreements with the US in 1998 and 2007, but these were done in secret because there was no tax waiver. Pratt warned that Ghana would be �surrendering sovereignty� in entering this agreement. The general sentiment in the country was opposed to the base, which is why both the Ghanaian government and the US denied that a base would be built.

Pratt was right. The US presence at Kotoka International Airport in Accra became the heart of the US military�s West Africa Logistics Network. By 2018, weekly flights from Ramstein Air Base in Germany landed in Accra with supplies (including arms and ammunition) for the at least 1,800 US Special Forces troops spread out across West Africa. Brigadier General Leonard Kosinski said in 2019 that this weekly flight was �basically a bus route�. At the Kotoka airport, the US maintains a Cooperative Security Location. This is a base in all but the name.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/06/15/why-does-the-united-states-have-a-military-base-in-ghana/

quote:

Waldhauser also emphasized that U.S. troops do not have the authority to carry out offensive strikes in any of the West African countries; nor has he authorized the troops under his command to accompany partner forces that they are training and advising, which would give them the right to exercise what�s known as �collective self-defense� � a strike in defense of that partner force. According to its internal policy, the Pentagon believes it has the legal authority to carry out collective self-defense strikes to protect partner forces even if the target of those strikes is not covered by a congressional military authorization; critics have raised concerns that the Pentagon could simply slap the designation on any group it wished in order to carry out airstrikes on a desired target. (�I can't say for sure whether they've been designated or not. I know that we don't strike them,� Waldhauser told lawmakers.)

Kosinski followed this lead � �If you look in West Africa, the U.S. is not the biggest game in town, not by far,� he said � and emphasized that the new hub in Accra is not a military base.

But the military will be shipping at least small arms through the new hub, he said. �Probably just small, self-defense equipment for the military themselves. It�s what you�d expect for special forces.�

A spokesperson for AFRICOM said that cargo will �likely be flown out shortly upon arrival� by C-130s, a smaller airlifter than the intercontinental C-17s. Primarily, the spokesman said, AFRICOM will hold materials in the airport�s commercial warehouse, which will be overseen by local subcontractors, at least initially with oversight from Defense Department personnel.

The military already pays Tunisia to pick up U.S. cargo in Ramstein, Germany on its C-130s and fly it down to Niger, where the military has a �temporary hub� until it can jumpstart operations at Accra. But broadly, Kosinski said, getting materials distributed across West Africa is �expensive, ad hoc, and it�s not efficient.�

The United States already maintains a so-called �cooperative security location� at the Kotoka Airport, Kosinski said � usually a warehouse or some other local real estate that the military has struck an agreement with a local government to be able to access within five or 10 days if it has some immediate need to be in the area. (In January, for example, about 80 troops moved into one of these contingency locations in Gabon in expectation of possible violent demonstrations after a presidential election in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.)

https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2019/02/africom-adds-logistics-hub-west-africa-hinting-enduring-us-presence/155015/

# ? Aug 7, 2023 22:46

PawParole: Nov 16, 2019

PoontifexMacksimus posted:

TikTok hiring mandarins, you say?

Edit: just so I understand, what period are you referring to by Abyssinia here?

Abyssinia is the dark orange region also known as Habeshas (ie. Amhara, Tigray,). The eastern, central, and southern regions of Ethiopia are Cushitic (ie. Somali, Oromo, Afar, Sidamo, etc). The western and southwestern regions belong to Nilotic Ethiopians.

Most of this territory was gained during or after the Scramble for Africa, when the Habeshas forcefully invaded, dominated and colonized the lands to the south, west, and east. It took the name �Ethiopia� from the biblical name for Sudan.

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PawParole has issued a correction as of 23:17 on Aug 7, 2023

# ? Aug 7, 2023 23:15

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# ? Jun 7, 2024 21:05

PawParole: Nov 16, 2019

https://twitter.com/Amhara_News/status/1688404269957787648

# ? Aug 8, 2023 00:06

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > [Mideast + Africa] Getting rid of Bongo- but at what Brice?

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