Records of British colonial crimes destroyed

Many of the most sensitive papers from Britain’s late colonial era were not hidden away, but simply destroyed. And nearly 9,000 files from 37 former British colonies that survived a purge of reports about the torture and murders of dissidents were kept hidden for some 20 years.

Guardian (Apr 19, 2012) –Thousands of documents detailing some of the most shameful acts and crimes committed during the final years of the British empire were systematically destroyed to prevent them from falling into the hands of post-independence governments, an official review has concluded.

Recolonization of Africa: AFRICOM’s imperialist culture and violence against Africans

For years, as U.S. military personnel moved into Africa in ever-increasing numbers, AFRICOM has effectively downplayed, disguised, or covered-up almost every aspect of its operations, from the locations of its troop deployments to those of its expanding string of outposts. NICK TURSE*

Six people lay lifeless in the filthy brown water.

It was 5:09 a.m. when their Toyota Land Cruiser plunged off a bridge in the West African country of Mali.  For about two seconds, the SUV sailed through the air, pirouetting 180 degrees as it plunged 70 feet, crashing into the Niger River.

Three of the dead were American commandos.  The driver, a captain nicknamed “Whiskey Dan,” was the leader of a shadowy team of operatives never profiled in the media and rarely mentioned even in government publications.

Recolonization of Africa: US military missions reach record levels after Pentagon inks deal to remain in Africa for decades

2044 or Bust –The U.S. military’s battlefield of tomorrow. In 2014, the U.S. carried out 674 military activities across Africa, nearly two missions per day, an almost 300 per cent jump in the number of annual operations, exercises, and military-to-military training activities since U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) was established in 2008. The number of security cooperation activities skyrocketed from 481 in 2013 to 595 last year. NICK TURSE,* TomDispatch.com

US’s back-to-the-future military policies in Africa

For the third time in the past year, the Harper War Government has deployed Special Forces to Africa, this time to Nigeria, under the guise of humanitarian intervention. Nick Turse* elaborates Obama’s new model for expeditionary warfare.

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 countries most Americans couldn’t locate on a map; the argot of conflicts now primarily fought by proxies and a former colonial power on a continent that the U.S. military views as a hotbed of instability and that hawkish pundits increasingly see as a growth area for future armed interventions.

Since 9/11, the U.S. military has been making inroads in Africa, building alliances, facilities, and a sophisticated logistics network.