The Limits of America’s African Experiment in Nation Building
by Nick Turse
Juba, South Sudan — The soft glow of the dancing white lights is a dead giveaway. It’s Christmas in July at the U.S. Embassy compound. Behind high walls topped with fierce-looking metal impediments meant to discourage climbers, there’s a party under way.
Close [...]
by Nick Turse*
The numbers tell the story: 10 exercises, 55 operations, 481 security cooperation activities.
For years, the U.S. military has publicly insisted that its efforts in Africa are small scale. Its public affairs personnel and commanders have repeatedly claimed no more than a “light footprint” on that continent, including a [...]
America’s New Model for Expeditionary Warfare
by Nick Turse
Lion Forward Teams? Echo Casemate? Juniper Micron?
You could be forgiven if this jumble of words looks like nonsense to you. It isn’t. It’s the language of the U.S. military’s simmering African interventions; the patois that goes with a set of missions carried out in [...]
Unraveling the Secrets of the Military’s Secret Military
by Nick Turse
via Tom Dispatch
“Dude, I don’t need to play these stupid games. I know what you’re trying to do.” With that, Major Matthew Robert Bockholt hung up on me.
More than a month before, I had called U.S. Special Operations Command [...]
The Startling Size, Scope, and Growth of U.S. Military Operations on the African Continent
by Nick Turse
via Tom Dispatch
They’re involved in Algeria and Angola, Benin and Botswana, Burkina Faso and Burundi, Cameroon and the Cape Verde Islands. And that’s just the ABCs of the situation. Skip to the end of the alphabet [...]
The U.S. Military and the Unraveling of Africa
by Nick Turse
via Tom Dispatch
The Gulf of Guinea. He said it without a hint of irony or embarrassment. This was one of U.S. Africa Command’s big success stories. The Gulf… of Guinea.
Lethality Beyond the Pale
by Nick Turse
via Tom Dispatch
In those first minutes, they’ll be stunned. Eyes fixed in a thousand-yard stare, nerve endings numbed. They’ll just stand there. Soon, you’ll notice that they are holding their arms out at a 45-degree angle. Your eyes will be drawn to their hands and [...]
Waterboarding Americans and the Redefinition of Torture
by Nick Turse
via Tom Dispatch
Try to remain calm — even as you begin to feel your chest tighten and your heart race. Try not to panic as water starts flowing into your nose and mouth, while you attempt [...]
From IPS News- “I Want to Live On” – Documentary Premiere on Kazakhstan Nuclear Test Survivors
- Navigating Russian Censorship from the Polar Circle
- Rich Distort Climate Problems, Offer Self-Serving Solutions
- This Doctor Helps Himalayan Women Ward off Cervical Cancer
- Oceans: Our First Line of Defense Against the Impacts of Climate Change
- Suicide, Another Face of the Crisis in Venezuela
- Right Here, Right Now: ECW’s USD 150 Million Climate Appeal to Save Children at Risk
- Argentina Plunges into the Unknown
- The Increase in Nuclear Rhetoric on the Korean Peninsula is Deeply Concerning
- Young Musician’s Death Exposes Zimbabwe’s Collapsing Health System
