Obama’s Military Presence in Niger: Uranium Control and Tuareg Suppression

Wayne Madsen

President Obama’s military incursion into Niger, ostensibly to establish a drone base to counter «Al Qaeda» and other Islamist guerrilla activity in neighboring Mali, has little to do with counter-insurgency and everything to do with establishing U.S. control over Niger’s uranium and other natural resources output and suppressing its native Tuareg population from seeking autonomy with their kin in northern Mali and Algeria.

The new drone base is initially located in the capital of Niamey and will later be moved to a forward operating location expected to be located in Agadez in the heart of Tuareg Niger… The base is being established to counter various Islamist groups – including Ansar Dine, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Nigeria-based Boko Haram, and a new group, Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA) - that briefly seized control of northern Mali from Tuaregs, led by the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, who took advantage of a coup d’état in Mali to establish an independent Tuareg state called Azawad.

The U.S. has long been opposed to any attempt by the suppressed Tuareg people to establish their own independent state in the Sahara. American opposition to the Tuaregs dovetails with historical French opposition to Tuareg nationalism.

However, U.S. State Department and CIA personnel have been discussing a U.S. presence in Niger since February 25, 2010, when a U.S. delegation met with the Chairman of the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy (CSRD), General Souleyman Salou, just one week after the military junta overthrew democratically-elected President Mamadou Tandja in a coup and suspended the Nigerien constitution.


Sequester initiates new austerity drive against US workers

Barry Grey

The political theatrics surrounding the sequester follow a well-established “bad cop, good cop” pattern. The pre-agreed result is always the same.

Over the weekend, President Barack Obama and Democratic and Republican lawmakers signaled that the across-the-board cuts in social programs under the so-called budget “sequestration” order signed Friday by Obama will remain in place indefinitely.

The unprecedented cuts in jobless benefits; education; student loans; nutritional aid to mothers and children; food, drug and water safety; air transport; research and infrastructure and other vital social needs will become the starting point for negotiations over the fiscal year 2014 federal budget. The focus of these talks will be massive cuts in the core social programs dating from the reforms of the 1930s and 1960s—Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Obama and Democratic leaders made it clear that in negotiations with the Republicans to extend funding authorization for the federal government, which expires on March 27, they would not seek to replace the sequester with a deal incorporating token tax increases on the wealthy along with more targeted spending cuts. Instead, they will accept an offer from the Republicans to extend funding at the post-sequester level, i.e., minus $85 billion, until the end of the current fiscal year, September 30.

As the New York Times put it on Saturday, this decision “most likely allows the across-the-board spending reductions to remain in place for months if not years.”


Hawkish Senators Want War on Iran

Stephen Lendman

Israel wants America to strike Iran.

Permanent war is official US policy. Bipartisan complicity supports it. Doing so violates international, constitutional and US statute laws. America is a lawless rogue state. It's been so for decades. It's by far the world's worst. It wages war on humanity. It does it at home and abroad. Innocent victims are murdered in cold blood. It's official policy. So are other high crimes.

Political Washington is beholden to dominant monied interests, war profiteers, other corporate favorites, and Israeli Lobby extremists. AIPAC represents their face. It's an unregistered foreign agent. It's represented Israel since 1953. It does so lawlessly. Virtually no one in Congress confronts it. Doing so assures short careers. It has enormous influence over US Middle East policies. They affect Israel, war, peace, and humanity.

It disseminates disinformation, lies and hate. It viciously attacks opponents. It's a cancer in our midst. It destroys fundamental freedoms.
It maliciously calls Iran "the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism and is racing toward a nuclear weapons capability."
It manufactures threats to promote fear. It wants the Islamic Republic destroyed. It targets other regional states. It wants unchallenged Israeli regional dominance.
Its annual conferences reflect out-of-control Zionist influence over US foreign policy. It calls them "the largest gathering of the pro-Israel movement."

A rogue's gallery of participants show up. They express fealty to what demands condemnation.


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