170 people 'taken hostage' in Mali hotel

[Mal]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-africa-34815762

Those Belgians strikes again

[hater]

Lots of French. Damn French becoming ISIS wipping boys :wow

They need to wake up and investigate Hollande for crimes against his people

[Pelicans78]

Lots of French. Damn French becoming ISIS wipping boys :wow

They need to wake up and investigate Hollande for crimes against his people

France should be investigated for their crimes against Africa in the last 50 years.

[Mal]

France should be investigated for their crimes against Africa in the last 50 years.

Only 50 ?

[hater]

France should be investigated for their crimes against Africa in the last 50 years.

Most of their crimes are well documented. But like most other colonizing Western countries, they are immune. Well until now, seems the day of reckoning has arrived

[boutons_deux]

France should be investigated for their crimes against Africa in the last 50 years.

All the West European countries and USA have screwed Africa for centuries, with US/UK oil and other resource extractors oil being esp aggressive these past decades.

[Pelicans78]

I didn't realize Mali was 90% Muslims and only 5% Christian.

[hater]

apparently the muslim hostages were freed. And the "infidel" hostages were kept.

[Pelicans78]

apparently the muslim hostages were freed. And the "infidel" hostages were kept.

That makes sense I guess. Sucks to be honest. Those "infidels" may become sitting ducks.

[Mal]

apparently the muslim hostages were freed. And the "infidel" hostages were kept.

By muslim you mean 'Belgians' and by infidels you mean catholics ?

[boutons_deux]

I didn't realize Mali was 90% Muslims and only 5% Christian.

the countries along the southern edge of the Sahara are Muslim in the north, and Christian (from French and English colonial invasions), animist, etc, in the south.

And of course, the Muslims there are at war with other religions if not at war with other Muslims (shia vs sunni, etc)

[Pelicans78]

the countries along the southern edge of the Sahara are Muslim in the north, and Christian (from French and English colonial invasions), animist, etc, in the south.

And of course, the Muslims there are at war with other religions if not at war with other Muslims (shia vs sunni, etc)

Not in Senegal. That's a pretty stable country.

[boutons_deux]

IN MALI AND REST OF AFRICA, THE U.S. MILITARY FIGHTS A HIDDEN WAR (https://theintercept.com/2015/11/20/in-mali-and-rest-of-africa-the-u-s-military-fights-a-hidden-war/)

THE GENERAL LEADING the U.S. military’s hidden war in Africa says the continent is now home to nearly 50 terrorist organizations and “illicit groups” that threaten U.S. interests. :lol

And today, gunmen reportedly yelling “Allahu Akbar” stormed the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali’s capital and seized several dozen hostages. U.S. special operations forces are “currently assisting hostage recovery efforts,” a Pentagon spokesperson said, and U.S. personnel have “helped move civilians to secured locations, as Malian forces clear the hotel of hostile gunmen.”

But what are the dozens of other groups in Africa that the Pentagon is fighting with more special operations forces, more outposts, and more missions than ever?

For the most part, the Pentagon won’t say.

Brigadier General Donald Bolduc, chief of U.S. Special Operations Command Africa, made a little-noticed comment earlier this month about these terror groups. After describing ISIS as a transnational and transregional threat, he went on to tell the audience of the Defense One Summit, “Although ISIS is a concern, so is al Shabaab, so is the Lord’s Resistance Army in Central Africa and the 43 other illicit groups that operate in the area … Boko Haram, AQIM, and other small groups in that area.”

Bolduc mentioned only a handful of terror groups by name, so I asked for clarification from the Department of Defense, Africa Command (AFRICOM), and Special Operations Command Africa (SOCAFRICA). None offered any names, let alone a complete accounting. SOCAFRICA did not respond to multiple queries by The Intercept. AFRICOM spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Anthony Falvo would only state, “I have nothing further for you.”

While the State Department maintains a list of foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs), including 10 operating in Africa (ISIS, Boko Haram, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, al Shabaab, AQIM, Ansaru, Ansar al-Din, Ansar al-Shari’a in Tunisia, as well as Libya’s Ansar al-Shari’a in Benghazi and Ansar al-Shari’a in Darnah), it “does not provide the DoD any legal or policy approval,” according to Lt. Col. Michelle Baldanza, a Defense Department spokesperson.

“The DoD does not maintain a separate or similar list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations for the government,” she said in an email to The Intercept. “In general, not all groups of armed individuals on the African continent that potentially present a threat to U.S. interests would be subject to FTO. DoD works closely with the Intel Community, Inter-Agency, and the [National Security Council] to continuously monitor threats to U.S. interests; and when required, identifies, tracks, and presents options to mitigate threats to U.S. persons overseas.”
This isn’t the first time the Defense Department has been unable or unwilling to name the groups it’s fighting.

https://theintercept.com/2015/11/20/in-mali-and-rest-of-africa-the-u-s-military-fights-a-hidden-war/

So the MIC is blowing taxpayers' $100Bs, and taxpayers are forbidden from knowing where, how, why.

My guess is "warriors gotta war" and the MIC ( aka "US interests" ) gotta enrich itself.

Certainly the MIC's $100Ms of lobbying and corruption is pushing the Repugs to whine and bitch for very expensive "boots on the ground". War is a business, first, foremost, above all.

[boutons_deux]

Hillary's regime change in Libya

Bamako Hostage Crisis: How U.S.-Backed Intervention in Libya Spread Chaos to Nearby Mali


NICK TURSE: One example is the case of Mali, where you had a U.S.-trained officer who overthrew the democratically elected government there just two years ago. You know, this was—Mali was supposed to be a bulwark against terrorism. It was supposed to be a stable success story. Instead you have that occurrence.

Then, last year, a U.S.-trained officer overthrew the government of Burkina Faso. You know, this is—I think it’s troubling.



And you hear the talk about professionalism of the military and that they’re instilling values, human rights, these sorts of things. But, yeah, in reality, what we’re seeing on the continent is very different. And if you look at the groups that we’re training on the continent, the militaries we’re training, and then you compare them to the State Department’s own list of militaries that are carrying out human rights abuses, that are acting in undemocratic ways, you see that these are the same forces. The U.S. is linked up with forces that are generally seen as repressive, even by our own government.



AMY GOODMAN: What is the U.S. interest in Africa?



NICK TURSE: Well, it’s difficult to say for sure. I think that the U.S. has viewed Africa as a place of weak governance, you know, sort of a zone that’s prone to terrorism, and that there can be a spread of terror groups on the continent if the U.S. doesn’t intervene. So, you know, there’s generally only one tool in the U.S. toolkit, and that’s a hammer. And unfortunately, then, everywhere they see nails.



AMY GOODMAN: What were you most surprised by in "The Drone Papers" that you got a hold of, a kind of—what’s been described as perhaps a second Edward Snowden, this project of The Interceptthat you wrote about, particularly when it came to Africa?



NICK TURSE: Well, I think it’s really just how far the proliferation of drone bases has spread on the continent. You know, I’ve been looking at this for years, but "The Drone Papers" drove home to me just how integral drones have become to the U.S. way of warfare on the continent. You know, I think this feeds into President Obama’s strategy, trying to get away from large-footprint interventions, you know, the disasters that we’ve seen in Iraq and Afghanistan. He’s leaned heavily now on special operations forces and on drones. And so, I think that’s probably the most surprising aspect.



JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And in terms of the reports that we get here, you basically—there’s either news about Boko Haram or al-Shabab or the disintegration, continuing disintegration, of Libya. To what extent have these special operations focused on these areas, and to what extent have they had any success?



NICK TURSE: Well, I think that Libya is actually a—it’s a great example of the best intentions gone awry by the U.S. The U.S. joined a coalition war to oust dictator Muammar Gaddafi. And I think that it was seen as a great success. Gaddafi fell, and it seemed like U.S. policies had played out just as they were drawn up in Washington. Instead, though, we saw that Libya has descended into chaos, and it’s been a nightmare for the Libyan people ever since—a complete catastrophe.



And it then had a tendency to spread across the continent. Gaddafi had Tuaregs from Mali who worked for him. They were elite troops. As his regime was falling, the Tuaregs raided his weapons stores, and they moved into Mali, into their traditional homeland, to carve out their own nation there. When they did that, the U.S.-backed military in Mali, that we had been training for years, began to disintegrate. That’s when the U.S.-trained officer decided that he could do a better job, overthrew the democratically elected government. But he proved no better at fighting the Tuaregs than the government he overthrew. As a result, Islamist rebels came in and pushed out his forces and the Tuaregs, and were making great gains in the country, looked poised to take it over.



The U.S. decided to intervene again, another military intervention. We backed the French and an African force to go in and stop the Islamists. We were able to, with these proxies—which is the preferred method of warfare on the African continent—arrest the Islamists’ advance, but now Mali has descended into a low-level insurgency. And it’s been like this for several years now.

The weapons that the Tuaregs originally had were taken by the Islamists and have now spread across the continent. You can find those weapons in the hands of Boko Haram now, even as far away as Sinai in Egypt. So, now, the U.S. has seen this as a way to stop the spread of militancy, but I think when you look, you see it just has spread it.


http://www.democracynow.org/2015/11/20/bamako_hostage_crisis_how_us_backed

USA Regime change, when has the replacement regime actually worked in USA's interests?