Africa and the war on terror
When insiders from the western establishment warn that there is a new phase of a war on terror in Africa, serious policy makers in Africa and beyond should take
serious note
Horace G. Campbell
Imminent threat is a term used in international law to justify a preemptive military strike. This concept of imminent threat had been articulated prior to the war against the people of Iraq by the George W Bush Administration when the peoples of the world were bombarded with information that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Ten years after the destruction of Iraq with millions killed or displaced, we now know that the case for war had been presented with dubious evidence. Today, there is a new propaganda war, that Jihadists across the Sahel pose an imminent threat to the United States. Recently, U.S. Senator Christopher Coons, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee stated in Bamako, Mali, that al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) posed a very real threat to Africa, the United States and the wider world.
Who or what is this AQIM? What are its origins? What are their sources of sustenance, finance and logistics?
These questions are not raised when the hype about imminent threat is being bandied about in the media. Both the Washington Post and the New York Times have been prolific in carrying stories about the new threats of terrorism from Africa. Those who do not know about Africa would be carried away by these incessant stories about terrorism in the Sahel, Al Queda in the Horn of Africa and the spread of Islamic terrorists across the length and breadth of Africa.
This idea that AQIM was on the verge of taking over Mali and West Africa had been promoted by France to justify the military intervention under the banner of Operation Serval. France had dispatched approximately 4000 troops to repel Jihadists who had taken over Northern Mali. After these Jihadists seized a number of towns and desecrated important cultural centers, international opinion was sufficiently outraged to mute criticisms of the French intervention. Progressive African opinion was divided over this invasion of Mali as France promoted the idea through a massive propaganda and disinformation campaign that it was invited by the government of Mali. Furthermore, select pictures of Malian citizens celebrating the routing of the Jihadists from towns that had been seized since January 12 gave legitimacy to the idea that Africans welcomed the French military intervention. After this successful intervention, western media outlets are replete with stories that it is the alliance between France and her allies along with the United States that can protect this region of Africa (from Mauritania to Sudan) from being overrun by terrorists. I will argue in this submission that the French intervention is also part of a wider struggle within the Western world and within the foreign policy establishment in Washington.
In a written testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Army Gen. David M. Rodriguez, who has been nominated to be the next leader of the Pentagons Africa Command, estimated that the U.S. military needs to increase its intelligence-gathering and spying missions in Africa by nearly 15-fold. Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee who support the expansion of the budget of the Pentagon at a moment of financial crisis for the majority of citizens on the planet pressed General Rodriquez to spell out how the United States will respond to threats and crisis in Africa in the future. This call to beef up the Africa Command is coming from the same section of the foreign and military establishment that opposes Chuck Hagel to become the next Secretary of Defense in the United States.
We are informed by the biographers of Petraeus that General David Rodriquez was mentored by General David Petraues. Even though both Petraeus and General John Allen have been diminished by scandals relating to their conduct, their ideas about terror and counter terror still hold a lot of sway among sections of the foreign and military establishment. This establishment is torn asunder because the United States cannot continue to finance a large military budget without greater austerity imposed on the US society. Black and brown citizens along with other sections of the working poor have borne the brunt of the austerity measures and the transfer of wealth from the poor to the top one per cent inside the United States. These sections of the population have borne the brunt of police harassment and killings. From this domestic policy flowed the foreign policy imperative to kill indiscriminately with drones.
In the context of the confirmation of John Brennan as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) a section of the media was able to get its hands on a Department of Justice white paper, which spells out exactly why its perfectly alright for the U.S. to enact extrajudicial assassination of its own citizens by drone strikes. Here was another instance where the idea of imminent threat was being used to justify killings. In the face of the massive anti-war sentiments in the USA, the Pentagon and the CIA resorted to fighting using Special Forces and drones. These drone strikes have killed thousands of persons in Africa and Asia with President Obama giving himself the authority to dispense with human life without trials. One only has to be a suspected terrorist to be targeted. The document is titled Lawfulness of a Lethal Operation Directed Against a U.S. Citizen who is a Senior Operational Leader of Al Qaida or An Associated Force. The Memo from the Department of Justice said that its definition of imminent threat doesnt require clear evidence that a specific attack on U.S. persons and interests will take place in the immediate future .
In the consciousness of the establishment of the United States, Africans had been demonized for decades. Now, with the divisions inside that establishment over its future, and the future projection of military force, Africa is now being conjured again as the scene of instability, violence and terrorism.
We will argue in this contribution that it is urgent for the peace and social justice forces internationally to mobilize against this planned remilitarization of Africa. Just as how, ten years after the war against Iraq, we know that the WMD threat was fabricated, it is urgent that the peace forces inside the United States expose the linkages between the military, the Algerian DRS and the Jihadists.
Horace G Campbell is a professor of African American Studies and Political Science at Syracuse University in USA
