Niger

[clusterchuck]

4:25 PM · Apr 17, 2024

The U.S. State Department is engaging in a deliberate COVERUP on the conditions of U.S. Forces in Niger, leaving our troops in harm’s way.

My office has conducted an investigation into this coverup, and we have learned that our troops in Niger have been pleading for help. They’ve sent intelligence reports stating that they rarely get safe water. They can’t get diplomatic overflights to receive medicine, fresh troop rotations, or even basic supplies. They have no mission. And the local authorities are becoming increasingly hostile. The current government of Niger has called the U.S. presence in the country “illegal.”

Why have you not heard these pleas? Because the U.S. Embassy in Niger has been BLOCKING the intelligence. This coverup exists to conceal the humiliating failures of the Biden Administration in Niger, throughout Africa, and around the world. I fear, as we speak, the conditions may be forming to create another Benghazi-style attack.

[clusterchuck]

8:23 AM · Apr 18, 2024

Right now in Niger, the government has stopped the U.S. from doing diplomatic overflight missions.

We have Army soldiers in Niger who aren’t getting their troop rotations, their medicine, or even their basic supplies. I currently have constituents there who can’t even get clean water!

And the U.S. embassy in Niger is COVERING IT UP because of the State Department and Secretary Blinken’s embarrassing mission FAILURE!

We should never sacrifice the well-being of our service members to avoid political humiliation. I am demanding the Army get these soldiers the help that they need immediately!

[clusterchuck]

4:58 PM · Apr 19, 2024

Today, the Biden Administration has announced they will be pulling 1,100 troops out of Niger following my report earlier this week. For too long, the Biden administration has allowed our troops in Niger to languish while it has tried to coverup reality and avoid embarrassment. This is yet another extraordinary Biden foreign policy failure.

I fear the administration will handle this withdrawal similarly to the withdrawal from Afghanistan. The safety and security of all service members must be our top priority in this time of transition. I look forward to the administration’s thorough brief on the basis for this decision and their plan for the path forward, our troops deserve as much.

[clusterchuck]

The narrative is amusing:

US to withdraw military personnel from Niger, source says
By Daphne Psaledakis
April 19, 2024 5:02 PM PDT Updated 2 days ago

WASHINGTON, April 19 (Reuters) - The United States will withdraw its troops from Niger, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters late on Friday, adding an agreement was reached between U.S Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and Niger's leadership.

There were a little over 1,000 U.S. troops in Niger as of last year, where the U.S. military operated out of two bases, including a drone base known as Air Base 201 built near Agadez in central Niger at a cost of more than $100 million.

Since 2018, the base has been used to target Islamic State militants and Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen, an al Qaeda affiliate, in the Sahel region.

Last year, Niger's army seized power in a coup, opens new tab. Until the coup, Niger had remained a key security partner of the United States and France.

But the new authorities in Niger joined juntas in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso in ending military deals with one-time Western allies like Washington and Paris, opens new tab, quitting the regional political and economic bloc ECOWAS and fostering closer ties with Russia.

In the coming days, there will be conversations about how that drawdown of troops will look, the source told Reuters, asking not to identified.
The source said there would still be diplomatic and economic relationships between the U.S. and Niger despite this step.

The New York Times earlier on Friday reported more than 1,000 American military personnel will leave Niger in the coming months.

Last month, Niger's ruling junta said it revoked with immediate effect, opens new tab a military accord that allowed military personnel and civilian staff from the U.S. Department of Defense on its soil.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us-withdr ... 024-04-19/

[thelionofthenorth]

GD fine fiction.

[clusterchuck]

Who could possibly argue with such a well constructed riposte?

Every one knows "GD fine fiction" is literally the MOAB of retorts.

[MiltantCentrist]

"Matt Gaetz, he paid minors to have sex with him at drug parties."

[thelionofthenorth]

Who could possibly argue with such a well constructed riposte?

Every one knows "GD fine fiction" is literally the MOAB of retorts.

You lost at “Matt Goetz”

[thelionofthenorth]

So, it’s a good thing to get our soldiers out of there, right?

[clusterchuck]

For those strapped securely in their assigned seats on the short bus, the topic is the administrations handling of the changing political environment in Niger. In your cult of personality world, changing the subject by injecting what you believe about Gaetz is secondary to the security of U.S. military personnel.

Since the presence of Gaetz name caused the barkers to overlook the sequence leading to "official announcement" by the administration they'll "begin planning" departure of troops, would it be leaping to conclusions the towering intellects declaring victory in this thread also didn't bother to listen to or read the account of actions by State Deprtment employees?

Are the genius responders here aware of the arrival Russian assets in Niger?
How about the de facto detention of those troops by Russia until a deal is worked out?

Doubtful.

Because gAeTz!