Sex, Drugs and Dead Soldiers: What the U.S. Africa Command Doesn’t Want You to Know

By Nick Turse, TomDispatch Apr 22, 2015 As American military operations have ramped up across Africa, reports of excessive drinking, sex with prostitutes, drug use, sexual assaults, and other forms of violence by AFRICOM personnel have escalated, and many of them have been kept under wraps. Dig deeper ( 16 Min. Read )

Military Missions at Record High After U.S. Signs Deal to Stay in Africa for Decades

By Nick Turse, TomDispatch Apr 15, 2015 Despite grim outcomes since the American military began “pivoting” to Africa after 9/11, the U.S. recently signed an agreement designed to keep its troops on the continent until almost midcentury. Dig deeper ( 11 Min. Read )

Pirates of the Gulf of Guinea

By Nick Turse, TomDispatch Sep 26, 2014 If the Gulf of Guinea rings any bells at all, it’s probably because of the Ebola outbreak in, and upcoming US military “surge” into, Liberia, the nation on the northern edge of that body of water But for those in the know, the Gulf itself is an intractable hot spot on a vast continent filled with them and yet another area where U military efforts have fallen short. Dig deeper ( 12 Min. Read )

How Not to Win Hearts and Minds in Africa

By Nick Turse, TomDispatch Sep 8, 2014 The U.S. is trying to win a war for the hearts and minds of Africa. But a Pentagon investigation suggests that those mystery projects somewhere out there in Djibouti or Ethiopia or Kenya or here in Tanzania may well be orphaned, ill-planned and undocumented failures-in-the-making. Dig deeper ( 12 Min. Read )

The U.S. Military’s New Normal in Africa

By Nick Turse, TomDispatch May 15, 2014 The real “new normal” for US Africa Command is the culmination of years of construction, ingratiation, and interventions, the fruits of wide-eyed expansion and dismal policy failures, the backing of proxies to fight America’s battles, while increasing U personnel and firepower in and around the continent. Dig deeper ( 11 Min. Read )

Washington Fights Fire With Fire in Libya

By Nick Turse, TomDispatch Apr 15, 2014 Is the US secretly training Libyan militiamen in the Canary Islands? That’s what I asked a spokesman for U Africa Command “I am surprised by your mentioning the Canary Islands,” he responded by email “I have not heard this before, and wonder where you heard this”. Dig deeper ( 13 Min. Read )

U.S. Military Averaging More Than a Mission a Day in Africa

By Nick Turse, TomDispatch Mar 28, 2014 For years, the US military has publicly insisted that its efforts in Africa are small scale A U Africa Command (AFRICOM) spokesman once expressed worry that tabulating the command’s deployments would offer a “skewed image” of U efforts there It turns out that the numbers do just the opposite. Dig deeper ( 8 Min. Read )

Washington’s Back-to-the-Future Military Policies in Africa

By Nick Turse, TomDispatch Mar 14, 2014 The U.S. has been making common cause with one of the continent’s former European colonial powers in a set of wars that seem to be spreading, not staunching violence and instability in the region. Dig deeper ( 15 Min. Read )

‘Kony 2012’ Snuck Into the Debt Ceiling Adjustment Bill

Staff / Truthdig Oct 22, 2013 The deceiving viral video that helped America justify fighting proxy wars in Africa has left its mark; Obamacare critics rant against Canadian style health care, but there are key differences between our system and that of our neighbor to the north; meanwhile, France is belatedly outraged about the NSA leaks. These discoveries and more after the jump. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

The Pivot to Africa

By Nick Turse, TomDispatch Sep 7, 2013 From the Middle East to South America, the Pentagon is increasingly engaged in shadowy operations whose details emerge piecemeal and are rarely examined in a comprehensive way. Nowhere is this truer than in Africa. Dig deeper ( 21 Min. Read )

The U.S. Military and the Unraveling of Africa

By Nick Turse, TomDispatch Jun 19, 2013 A careful examination of the security situation in Africa suggests that it is in the process of becoming Ground Zero for a veritable terror diaspora set in motion in the wake of 9/11 that has only accelerated in the Obama years. U.S. “stability” operations in Africa have increased, militancy has spread, insurgent groups have proliferated and the continent has become more unsettled. Dig deeper ( 20 Min. Read )

How the News Is Killing You

Staff / Truthdig Apr 15, 2013 Reading mass media news articles is unhealthy and causes unhappiness, so stop it; Americans want to know more about socialism, as evidenced by Merriam-Webster's two most searched entries in 2012; meanwhile the Swedes were dissatisfied with gendered pronouns and have officially incorporated a third, gender-neutral one into their language. These discoveries and more after the jump. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )