{"id":49993,"date":"2014-11-24T12:00:14","date_gmt":"2014-11-24T12:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=49993"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:29:30","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:29:30","slug":"the-outpost-that-doesnt-exist-in-the-country-you-cant-locate-why-is-the-us-military-so-interested-in-chad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/11\/the-outpost-that-doesnt-exist-in-the-country-you-cant-locate-why-is-the-us-military-so-interested-in-chad\/","title":{"rendered":"The Outpost That Doesn’t Exist in the Country You Can’t Locate – Why Is the US Military So Interested in Chad?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US military continues a long series of mistakes, missteps and mishaps across Africa. A base camp, an authoritarian regime, and the future of U.S. blowback.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Brigadier<\/a>

Brigadier General James Linder and other military officials at the closing ceremony for a US-led international training mission for African militaries (Reuters\/Joe Penney)<\/p><\/div>\n

Admit it. You don\u2019t know where Chad is. You know it\u2019s in Africa, of course. But beyond that? Maybe with a map of the continent and by some process of elimination you could come close. But you\u2019d probably pick Sudan or maybe the Central African Republic. Here\u2019s a tip. In the future, choose that vast, arid swath of land just below Libya.<\/p>\n

Who does know where Chad is?\u00a0 That answer is simpler: the U.S. military.\u00a0 Recent contracting documents indicate that it\u2019s building something there.\u00a0 Not a huge facility, not a mini-American town, but a small camp.<\/p>\n

That the U.S. military is expanding its efforts in Africa shouldn\u2019t be a shock anymore.\u00a0 For years now, the Pentagon has been increasing its missions<\/a> there and promoting a mini-basing boom<\/a> that has left it with a growing collection of outposts sprouting<\/a> across the northern tier of the continent.\u00a0 This string<\/a> of camps is meant to do what more than a decade of counterterrorism efforts, including the training and equipping of local military forces and a variety of humanitarian hearts-and-minds missions, has failed to accomplish: transform the Trans-Sahara region in the northern and western parts of the continent into a bulwark of stability.<\/p>\n

That the U.S. is doing more in Chad specifically isn\u2019t particularly astonishing either.\u00a0 Earlier this year, TomDispatch<\/a><\/em> and the Washington Post<\/a><\/em> both reported on separate recent deployments of U.S. troops to that north-central African nation.\u00a0 Nor is it shocking that the new American compound is to be located near the capital, N\u2019Djamena.\u00a0 The U.S. has previously employed N\u2019Djamena<\/a> as a hub<\/a> for its air operations<\/a>.\u00a0 What\u2019s striking is the terminology used in the official documents.\u00a0 After years of adamant claims<\/a> that the U.S. military has just one lonely base in all of Africa — Camp Lemonnier in the tiny Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti — Army documents state that it will now have \u201cbase camp facilities\u201d in Chad.<\/p>\n

U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) still insists that there is no Chadian base, that the camp serves only as temporary lodgings to support a Special Operations training exercise to be held next year.\u00a0 It also refused to comment about another troop deployment to Chad uncovered by TomDispatch<\/em>.\u00a0 When it comes to American military activities in Africa, much remains murky.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, one fact is crystal clear: the U.S. is ever more tied to Chad.\u00a0 This remains true despite a decade-long effort to train its military forces only to see them bolt from one mission in the face of casualties, leave another in a huff after gunning down unarmed civilians, and engage in human rights abuses at home with utter impunity.\u00a0 All of this suggests yet another potential source of blowback from America\u2019s efforts in Africa which have backfired, gone bust<\/a>, and sown strife<\/a> from Libya<\/a> to South Sudan<\/a>, the Gulf Guinea<\/a> to Mali<\/a>, and beyond.<\/p>\n

A Checkered History with Chad<\/strong><\/p>\n

Following 9\/11, the U.S. launched a counterterrorism program, known as the Pan-Sahel Initiative, to bolster the militaries of Mali, Niger, Mauritania, and Chad<\/a>.\u00a0 Three years later, in 2005, the program expanded to include Nigeria, Senegal, Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia and was renamed the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership<\/a> (TSCTP).\u00a0 The idea was to turn a huge swath of Africa into a terror-resistant bulwark of stability.\u00a0 Twelve years and hundreds of millions of dollars later, the region is anything but stable, which means that it fits perfectly, like a missing puzzle piece, with the rest of the under-the-radar U.S. \u201cpivot\u201d to that continent.<\/p>\n

Coups by the U.S.-backed militaries of Mauritania in 2005<\/a> and again in 2008<\/a>, Niger in 2010<\/a>, and Mali in 2012<\/a>, as well as a 2011<\/a> revolution that overthrew Tunisia\u2019s U.S.-backed government (after the U.S.-supported<\/a> army stood aside<\/a>); the establishment of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in 2006<\/a>; and the rise<\/a> of Boko Haram from an obscure radical sect to a raging insurgent movement<\/a> in northern Nigeria are only some<\/a> of the most notable recent failures in TSCTP nations.\u00a0 Chad came close to making the list, too, but attempted military coups in 2006<\/a> and 2013<\/a> were thwarted, and in 2008<\/a>, the government, which had itself come to power in a 1990 coup, managed to hold off against a rebel assault on the capital.<\/p>\n

Through it all, the U.S. has continued<\/a> to mentor<\/a> Chad\u2019s military, and in return, that nation has lent its muscle to support Washington\u2019s interests in the region.\u00a0 Chad, for instance, joined the 2013 U.S.-backed French military intervention<\/a> to retake Mali after Islamists began routing the forces of the American-trained officer<\/a> who had launched a coup that overthrew that country\u2019s democratically elected government.\u00a0 According to military briefing slides obtained<\/a> by TomDispatch<\/em>, an Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) liaison team was deployed to Chad to aid operations in Mali and the U.S. also conducted pre-deployment training for its Chadian proxies.\u00a0 After initial success, the French effort became bogged down<\/a> and has now become a seemingly interminable<\/a>, smoldering<\/a> counterinsurgency campaign.\u00a0 Chad, for its part, quickly withdrew<\/a> its forces from the fight after sustaining modest casualties.\u00a0 \u201cChad’s army has no ability to face the kind of guerrilla fighting that is emerging in northern Mali. Our soldiers are going to return to Chad,\u201d said that country\u2019s president, Idriss Deby.<\/p>\n

Still, U.S. support continued.<\/p>\n

In September of 2013, the U.S. military organized meetings with Chad\u2019s senior-most military leaders, including Army chief General Brahim Seid Mahamat, Minister of Defense General B\u00e9na\u00efndo Tatola, and counterterror tsar Brigadier General Abderaman Youssouf Merry, to build solid relationships and support efforts at \u201ccountering violent extremist operations objectives and theater security cooperation programs.\u201d This comes from a separate set of documents concerning \u201cIO,\u201d or Information Operations, obtained from the military through the Freedom of Information Act. \u00a0French officials also attended these meetings and the agenda included the former colonial power\u2019s support of \u201csecurity cooperation with Chad in the areas of basic and officer training and staff procedures\u201d as well as \u201cFrench support [for] U.S. security cooperation efforts with the Chadian military.\u201d\u00a0 Official briefing slides also mention ongoing \u201ctrain and equip\u201d activities with Chadian troops.<\/p>\n

All of this followed on the heels of a murky coup plot<\/a> by elements of the armed forces last May to which the Chadian military reacted with a crescendo of violence.\u00a0 According<\/a> to a State Department report, Chad\u2019s \u201csecurity forces shot and killed unarmed civilians and arrested and detained members of parliament, military officers, former rebels, and others.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Chad reportedly helped overthrow<\/a> the Central African Republic\u2019s president in early 2013<\/a> and later aided in the 2014 ouster<\/a> of the rebel leader who deposed him, it sent its forces into that civil-war-torn land as part of an African Union<\/a> mission bolstered by U.S.-backed<\/a> French troops.\u00a0 Soon, Chad\u2019s peacekeeping forces were accused of stoking sectarian strife by supporting Muslim militias against Christian fighters.\u00a0 Then, on March 29th, a Chadian military convoy arrived in a crowded marketplace in the capital, Bangui.\u00a0 There, according<\/a> to a United Nations report, the troops \u201creportedly opened fire on the population without any provocation. At the time, the market was full of people, including many girls and women buying and selling produce. As panic-stricken people fled in all directions, the soldiers allegedly continued firing indiscriminately.\u201d<\/p>\n

In all, 30 civilians were reportedly killed and more than 300 were wounded.\u00a0 Amid criticism, Chad angrily announced<\/a> it was withdrawing its troops.\u00a0 \u201cDespite the sacrifices we have made, Chad and Chadians have been targeted in a gratuitous and malicious campaign that blamed them for all the suffering\u201d in the Central African Republic, declared Chad’s foreign ministry.<\/p>\n

In May, despite this, the U.S. sent<\/a> 80 military personnel to Chad to operate drones and conduct surveillance in an effort to locate hundreds of schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram in neighboring Nigeria.\u00a0 \u201cThese personnel will support the operation of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft for missions over northern Nigeria and the surrounding area,\u201d President Obama told<\/a> Congress.\u00a0 The force, he said, will remain in Chad \u201cuntil its support in resolving the kidnapping situation is no longer required.\u201d\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

In July, AFRICOM admitted<\/a> that it had reduced surveillance flights searching for the girls to focus on other missions.\u00a0 Now AFRICOM tells TomDispatch<\/em> that, while \u201cthe U.S. continues to help Nigeria address the threat posed by Boko Haram, the previously announced ISR support deployment to Chad has departed.\u201d\u00a0 Yet more than seven months after their abduction, the girls still have not been located, let alone rescued<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In June, according to the State Department, the deputy commander of U.S. Army Africa (USARAF), Brigadier General Kenneth H. Moore, Jr., visited<\/a> Chad to \u201ccelebrat[e] the successful conclusion of a partnership between USARAF and the Chadian Armed Forces.\u201d\u00a0 Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus arrived<\/a> in that landlocked country at the same time to meet with \u201ctop Chadian officials.\u201d\u00a0 His visit, according to an embassy press release, \u201cunderscore[d] the importance of bilateral relations between the two countries, as well as military cooperation.\u201d\u00a0 And that cooperation has been ample.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Chadian troops joined those of the United States, Burkina Faso, Canada, France, Mauritania, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Senegal, the United Kingdom, and host nation Niger for three weeks<\/a> of military drills as part of Flintlock 2014, an annual Special Ops counterterrorism exercise for TSCTP nations<\/a>.\u00a0 At about the time Flintlock was concluding, soldiers from Chad, Cameroon, Burundi, Gabon, Nigeria, the Republic of Congo, the Netherlands, and the United States took part in another annual training exercise, Central Accord 2014.\u00a0 The Army also sent medical personnel to mentor<\/a> Chadian counterparts in \u201ctactical combat casualty care,\u201d while Marines and Navy personnel traveled to Chad to train that country\u2019s militarized anti-poaching park rangers in small unit tactics and patrolling.<\/p>\n

A separate contingent of Marines conducted military intelligence training with Chadian officers and non-commissioned officers.\u00a0 The scenario for the final exercise, also involving personnel from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mauritania, Senegal, and Tunisia, had a ripped-from-the-headlines quality: \u201cpreparing for an unconventional war against an insurgent threat in Mali.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for U.S. Army Africa, it sent trainers as part of a separate effort to provide<\/a> Chadian troops with instruction on patrolling and fixed-site defense as well as live-fire training. \u00a0\u201cWe are ready to begin training in Chad for about 1,300 soldiers — an 850 man battalion, plus another 450 man battalion,\u201d said<\/a> Colonel John Ruffing, the Security Cooperation director of U.S. Army Africa, noting that the U.S. was working in tandem with a French private security firm.<\/p>\n

In September, AFRICOM reaffirmed its close ties with Chad by renewing<\/a> an Acquisition Cross Servicing Agreement, which allows both militaries to purchase from each other or trade for basic supplies. \u00a0The open-ended pact, said Brigadier General James Vechery, AFRICOM\u2019s director for logistics, \u201cwill continue to strengthen our bilateral cooperation on international security issues… as well as the interoperability of the armed forces of both nations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Base That Wasn\u2019t and the Deployment That Might Be<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the months since the Chadian armed forces\u2019 massacre<\/a> in Bangui, various U.S. military contract solicitations and related documents have pointed toward an even more substantive American presence in Chad.\u00a0 In late September, the Army put out a call for bids to sustain American personnel for six months at those \u201cbase camp facilities\u201d located near N’Djamena.\u00a0 Supporting documents specifically mention 35 U.S. personnel and detail the services necessary to run an austere outpost: field sanitation, bulk water supply, sewage services, and trash removal.\u00a0 The materials indicate that \u201clocal security policy and procedures\u201d are to be provided by the Chadian armed forces and allude to the use of more than one location, saying \u201cnone of the sites in Chad are considered U.S.-federally controlled facilities.\u201d\u00a0 The documents state that such support for those facilities is to run until July 2015.<\/p>\n

After AFRICOM failed to respond to repeated email requests for further information, I called up Chief of Media Operations Benjamin Benson and asked about the base camp.\u00a0 He was even more tight-lipped than usual.\u00a0 \u201cI personally don\u2019t know anything,\u201d he told me. \u201cThat\u2019s not saying AFRICOM doesn\u2019t have any information on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In follow-up emails, Benson eventually told me that the \u201cbase camp\u201d is strictly a temporary facility to be used by U.S. forces only for the duration of the upcoming Flintlock 2015<\/a> exercise.\u00a0 He stated in no uncertain terms: \u201cWe are not establishing a base\/forward presence\/contingency location, building a U.S. facility, or stationing troops in Chad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benson would not, however, let me speak with an expert on U.S. military activities in Chad.\u00a0 Nor would he confirm or deny the continued presence of the Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance liaison team deployed to Chad in 2013 to support the French mission in Mali, first reported<\/a> on by TomDispatch<\/em> this March.\u00a0 \u201c[W]e cannot discuss ISR activities or the locations and durations of operational deployments,\u201d he wrote.\u00a0 If an ISR team is still present in Chad, this would represent a substantive long-term deployment despite the lack of a formal U.S. base.<\/p>\n

The N\u2019Djamena \u201cbase camp\u201d is just one of a series of Chadian projects mentioned in recent contracting documents.\u00a0 An Army solicitation from September sought \u201cbuilding materials for use in Chad,\u201d while supporting documents specifically mention an \u201coperations center\/multi-use facility.\u201d\u00a0 That same month, the Army awarded a contract for the transport of equipment from Niamey, Niger, the home of another<\/a> of the growing network of U.S. outposts in Africa, to N\u2019Djamena.\u00a0 The Army also began seeking out contractors capable of supplying close to 600 bunk beds that could support an American-sized<\/a> weight of 200 to 225 pounds for a facility \u201cin and around the N’Djamena region.\u201d\u00a0 And just last month, the military put out a call for a contractor to supply construction equipment — a bulldozer, dump truck, excavator, and the like — for a project in, you guessed it, N’Djamena.<\/p>\n

This increased U.S. interest in Chad follows on the heels of a push by France, the nation\u2019s former colonial overlord<\/a> and America\u2019s current<\/a> premier proxy<\/a> in Africa, to beef up its military footprint on the continent.\u00a0 In July, following U.S.-backed French military interventions in Mali and the Central African Republic, French President Fran\u00e7ois Hollande announced a new mission, Operation Barkhane (a term for a crescent-shaped sand dune found in the Sahara).\u00a0 Its purpose: a long-term counterterrorism operation involving 3,000 French troops deployed to a special forces outpost<\/a> in Burkina Faso and forward operating bases<\/a> in Mali<\/a>, Niger, and not surprisingly, Chad<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are plenty of threats in all directions,\u201d Hollande told French soldiers in Chad, citing militants in Mali and Libya as well as Boko Haram in Nigeria.\u00a0 \u201cRather than having large bases that are difficult to manage in moments of crisis, we prefer installations that can be used quickly and efficiently.\u201d\u00a0 Shortly afterward, President Obama approved<\/a> millions in emergency military aid for French operations in Mali, Niger, and Chad, while the United Kingdom, another former colonial power in the region, dispatched<\/a> combat aircraft to the French base in N’Djamena to contribute to the battle against Boko Haram.<\/p>\n

From Setback to Blowback?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In recent years, the U.S. military has been involved in a continual process of expanding its presence in Africa.\u00a0 Out of public earshot, officials have talked<\/a> about setting up a string of small bases across the northern tier of the continent.\u00a0 Indeed, over the last years, U.S. staging areas, mini-bases, and outposts have popped up in the contiguous nations of Senegal<\/a>, Mali<\/a>, Burkina Faso<\/a>, Niger<\/a>, and, skipping Chad, in the Central African Republic<\/a>, followed by South Sudan<\/a>, Uganda<\/a>, Kenya<\/a>, Ethiopia<\/a>, and Djibouti<\/a>. \u00a0A staunch American ally with a frequent and perhaps enduring American troop presence, Chad seems like the natural spot for still another military compound — the only missing link in a long chain of countries stretching from west to east, from one edge of the continent to the other — even if AFRICOM continues to insist that there\u2019s no American \u201cbase\u201d in the works.<\/p>\n

Even without a base, the United States has for more than a decade poured copious amounts of money, time, and effort into making Chad a stable regional counterterrorism partner, sending troops there, training and equipping its army, counseling its military leaders, providing<\/a> tens of millions of dollars in aid, funding<\/a> its military expeditions, supplying<\/a> its army with equipment ranging from tents to trucks, donating<\/a> additional equipment for its domestic security forces, providing<\/a> a surveillance and security system for its border security agents, and looking the other way when its military employed<\/a> child soldiers.<\/p>\n

The results? A flight from the fight in Mali, a massacre in the Central African Republic, hundreds of schoolgirls still in the clutches of Boko Haram, and a U.S. alliance with a regime whose \u201cmost significant human rights problems,\u201d according<\/a> to the most recent country report by the State Department\u2019s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, \u201cwere security force abuse, including torture; harsh prison conditions; and discrimination and violence against women and children,\u201d not to mention the restriction of freedom of speech, press, assembly, and movement, as well as arbitrary arrest and detention, denial of fair public trial, executive influence on the judiciary, property seizures, child labor and forced labor (that also includes children), among other abuses.\u00a0 Amnesty International further found<\/a> that human rights violations \u201care committed with almost total impunity by members of the Chadian military, the Presidential Guard, and the state intelligence bureau, the Agence Nationale de Securit\u00e9.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Chad, the United States finds itself more deeply involved with yet another authoritarian government and another atrocity-prone proxy force.\u00a0 In this, it continues a long series of mistakes, missteps, and mishaps across Africa.\u00a0 These include an intervention in Libya<\/a> that transformed the country from an autocracy into a near-failed state<\/a>, training efforts that produced coup leaders in Mali<\/a> and Burkina Faso<\/a>, American nation-building that led to a failed state in South Sudan<\/a>, anti-piracy measures that flopped in the Gulf of Guinea<\/a>, the many<\/a> fiascos<\/a> of the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership<\/a>, the training of an elite Congolese unit that committed<\/a> mass rapes and other atrocities, problem-plagued humanitarian efforts in Djibouti<\/a> and Ethiopia<\/a>, and the steady rise of terror groups in U.S.-backed countries like Nigeria<\/a> and Tunisia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In other words, in its shadowy \u201cpivot<\/a>\u201d to Africa, the U.S. military has compiled a record remarkably low on successes<\/a> and high on blowback<\/a>.\u00a0 Is it time to add Chad to this growing list?<\/p>\n

_______________________________<\/p>\n

Nick Turse is the managing editor of <\/em>TomDispatch.com and a fellow at the Nation Institute.\u00a0 A 2014 Izzy Award winner, he has reported from the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Africa and his pieces have appeared in the <\/em>New York Times, the <\/em>Los Angeles Times, the Nation, and regularly<\/a> at <\/em>TomDispatch. His <\/em>New York Times bestseller <\/em>Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam<\/a> recently received an American Book Award<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 tomdispatch.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The US military continues a long series of mistakes, missteps and mishaps across Africa. A base camp, an authoritarian regime, and the future of U.S. blowback.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49993","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=49993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49993\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}