Shocking as it may seem, Mali’s coup leader, Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo, had been given US military and intelligence training by the US Africa Command, through the US State Department-sponsored International Military Education and Training program.
The narrative is that Tuareg fighters returning from fighting for Gaddafi in Libya were stirring up trouble in Mali and the elected government of President Amadou Toumani Toure was not aggressive enough in combating the rebels in the north. Being a good patriot, Sanogo’s soldiers took matters into their own hands.
Proving that Sanogo was paying attention during his State Department-funded training, he named his movement to overthrow the legitimately-elected government of Mali the “National Committee for the Return of Democracy and the Restoration of the State.” Democracy is what we say it is. You return to democracy by overthrowing democracy. To understand the logic, it may be necessary to take US State Department-funded “demokra-speak” lessons.
The Washington Post reports another interesting AFRICOM link:
The Africa Command had planned to hold a major regional military exercise in Mali last month but canceled because of Mali’s struggles to contain a Tuareg insurgency in the northern part of the country. The exercise, called Flintlock 2012, was supposed to bring together security forces from West Africa, Europe and the United States to coordinate counterterrorism missions.
The US government has condemned the coup in Mali, but as RT points out “is not planning to reconsider its $140-million aid program to Mali in 2012.” Sounds a bit like Honduras, doesn’t it? Remember the US government crocodile tears over the overthrow of President Zelaya, not long after Zelaya decided to join Hugo Chavez’s ALBA, the “Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America.”
I cannot help but wonder how much of this “democratic coup” can be explained by the very interesting lengthy study, “AFRICOM Report: Combating Chinese Economic Encroachment in Central Africa”. (h/t LandDestroyer)
7:18 am on March 24, 2012
