david rodriguez

The U.S. Military Pivots to Africa, and That Continent Goes Down the Drain

By Nick Turse / TomDispatch Aug 3, 2016 Over the past six years, each incoming commander of the U.S. Africa Command has offered a more dismal and dire assessment of the situation facing the American military there than his predecessor. Dig deeper ( 8 Min. Read )

The Numbers Racket: U.S. Africa Command Clams Up After Contradictory Statements to Congress

By Nick Turse / TomDispatch Jun 29, 2016 Somehow, between 2015 and 2016, more than 200 AFRICOM missions from 2014 simply vanished. And the Senate Armed Services Committee apparently hasn't bothered to ask for clarification. Dig deeper ( 9 Min. Read )

U.S. General in Nigeria to Aid Search for Schoolgirls

Staff / Truthdig May 13, 2014 The commander of U.S. forces in Africa held talks Tuesday in Nigeria as Washington sought to help the government in Abuja trace more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by Islamist militants. Dig deeper ( 1 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 )

AFRICOM Goes to War on the Sly

By Nick Turse, TomDispatch Apr 14, 2014 At a recent Pentagon news conference, the AFRICOM commander assured reporters that the U.S. “has little forward presence” in Africa. Just days earlier, however, the men building that presence told a very different story to some of the biggest military engineering firms on the planet. And the story was of war. Dig deeper ( 12 Min. Read )