{"id":215178,"date":"2022-06-20T12:00:17","date_gmt":"2022-06-20T11:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=215178"},"modified":"2022-06-15T04:41:52","modified_gmt":"2022-06-15T03:41:52","slug":"new-bill-that-passed-u-s-house-reinvokes-old-russian-bogeyman-as-pretext-for-more-intervention-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/06\/new-bill-that-passed-u-s-house-reinvokes-old-russian-bogeyman-as-pretext-for-more-intervention-in-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"New Bill That Passed U.S. House Reinvokes Old Russian Bogeyman as Pretext for More Intervention in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liberal Democrats shamefully all voted for the \u201cCountering Malign Russian Influence Activities in Africa\u201d Act\u2014seems like relic from bygone era. <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Map warns of growing Russian influence in Africa\u2014shades of the Cold War. [Source: vifindia.org]<\/p><\/div>\n

14 Jun 2022 – <\/em>During the Cold War, the U.S. government invoked the pretext of Russian interference to justify a range of crimes, including the assassination of Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, the overthrow of Pan-Africanist hero Kwame Nkrumah, the arrest of Nelson Mandela and intervention in the Angolan civil war.<\/p>\n

Just when we thought that that era had passed, the House of Representatives on April 27 passed the \u201cCountering Malign Russian Influence Activities in Africa\u201d Act by a 415-9 vote<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The bill in part would direct the U.S. Secretary of State, using \u201cdetailed intelligence,\u201d to identify in Africa \u201clocal actors complicit in Russian activities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. in turn may very well seek to punish those actors through economic sanctions or even regime change. \u201cRussian aggression\u201d is generally being invoked to justify greater U.S. intervention in Africa, including the expansion of the Africa Command (AFRICOM) and U.S. military base network across the continent.<\/p>\n

\"Anti-war
[Source: tehrantimes.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Exceptional Show of Bipartisan Support <\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Nay votes for the \u201cCountering Malign Russian Influence Activities in Africa\u201d Act all came from Republicans. Supposed progressive stalwarts like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Barbara Lee, Ro Khanna and members of the \u201cSquad\u201d all voted Yea<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Ilhan
Ilhan Omar (D-MN) betrayed her own people by voting for the \u201cCountering Malign Russian Influence Activities in Africa\u201d Act. [Source: cnn.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The main sponsor of the bill, Gregory Meeks (D-NY), is Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n

After passage of the bill, he voiced his pride in the \u201cexceptional show of bipartisan support,\u201d<\/a> which he said \u201cdemonstrated how Putin\u2019s war in Ukraine, and the Kremlin\u2019s corrupt and illicit activities in Africa to fund war and other exploits have worked to unify Congress and the international community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Gregory Meeks [Source: wikipedia.org<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Meeks continued: \u201cAs we continue to apply pressure on Putin and his agents for carrying out war crimes throughout this unjustifiable war of aggression, we cannot forget\u00a0that\u00a0the Russian Federation will continue to seek avenues through which it can pilfer, manipulate, and exploit resources in parts of Africa to evade sanctions and undermine U.S. interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States not only stands with the people of Ukraine, but with all innocent people who have been victimized by Putin\u2019s mercenaries and agents credibly accused of gross violations of human rights in Africa, including in the Central African Republic and Mali.\u00a0This bill enlists the resources of the State Department and other federal agencies to examine the Russian Federation\u2019s\u00a0malign activities in Africa and hold those complicit in these activities to account. The United States will not sit by and watch Putin\u2019s war machine attempt to gain strength to the detriment of fragile states in Africa and elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the Russians have been involved in some shady operations, many African countries have had long-standing positive ties to Russia and benefitted from its support for African liberation movements during the Cold War\u2014in contrast to the U.S.\u2014including in South Africa.<\/p>\n

Meeks\u2019s comments mostly offer a form of projection in that they accuse Russia of trying to exploit Africa\u2019s resources when this is clearly something that the U.S. has done far more extensively and for a much longer period than Russia.<\/p>\n

\n
\"AFRICOM
Vice Admiral Robert Moeller [Source:\u00a0vincecrawley.wordpress.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

AFRICOM founder Vice Admiral Robert Moeller admitted that one of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM)\u2019s guiding principles was\u00a0\u201cprotecting the free flow of natural resources from Africa to the global market.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

The \u201cCountering Malign Russian Influence Activities in Africa\u201d Act will be used to justify flagrant infringements on the sovereignty of African countries. It attempts to use the Russian bogeyman\u2014like in the Cold War era\u2014as a pretext for neocolonial expansion.<\/p>\n

The rhetoric surrounding the bill fits with the larger demonization of Vladimir Putin and Russia, which is a desperate ploy by the U.S. ruling elite to try to mobilize the public against a foreign enemy at a time of growing economic crisis and threatening civil discontent.<\/p>\n

_____________________________________________<\/p>\n

\n
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\"\"<\/a>Richard Dunn is a retired construction professional, trained in Architecture and Energy Management. He\u2019s been a social justice activist since 1968 and was particularly active with the Walter Rodney defense demonstrations. Richard is an author, a contributing columnist to newspapers, an editor for a music industry magazine and operates a social justice website. Email: richarddunn75@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

CovertAction Magazine —> <\/em>About us<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Go to Original – convertactionmagazine.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

14 Jun 2022 – Liberal Democrats shamefully all voted for the \u201cCountering Malign Russian Influence Activities in Africa\u201d Act\u2014seems like relic from bygone era.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":215180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[237,131,813,112,278,70,1468],"class_list":["post-215178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa","tag-africa","tag-africom","tag-cold-war","tag-pentagon","tag-russia","tag-usa","tag-ussr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}