AFRICOM’s deputy spokesperson Vince Crawley said in a comment that any rumours about US military bases in Algeria are untrue.
Here is the text of the comment in full, as posted in the previous entry:
I just ran across this discussion on your blog.
There are some media reports of a deal between Algeria and the U.S. for temporary use of bases in Algeria. These reports aren’t accurate.
For more info, I invite you to read AFRICOM commander General William Ward’s news conference transcript from December 3 in Algiers, posted on the http://www.africom.mil website: http://bit.ly/5ouvZX
Quotes include:
“I did not come here with any request to put troops in the Sahel to combat terrorism and I have no plans to do so.”
“[T]here are no plans to conduct that type of training or exercises here in Algeria.”
The United States is not conducting any combat operations in the Sahel, to include Algeria or any of its neighboring countries.
Respectfully,
Vince Crawley
U.S. Africa Command Public Affairs
http://www.africom.mil
So far the reasons given by Zitout and the Quds Press story do not stand up to scrutiny (see reasoning in previous post). It is unclear whether Zitout’s claim is pure speculation or inside knowledge. What is mysterious is not only whether a base has been agreed or not, it is also what the current Algerian authorities will gain from the deal. Recall that ABC news broadcasted a report about American forces training Algerian special forces in the Sahara earlier this year (video). Whether this limited American military presence extended beyond, or will extend beyond what is present in the report is unclear.
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December 18, 2009 at 21:14
wahid farid
not accurate doesn’t mean at all “untrue” as you said, au contraire, it means the true but lacks some precision, and this here is more evidence:
When General Charles Wald, former Deputy Commander for the European Command (EUCOM) was asked whether the US plans on creating a military base in Algeria, he responded “We’re not building a base in Algeria. We are interested in being able to land at bases in Algeria with our aircraft, or train together, but we’re not interested in building a permanent base there, and I don’t think the Algerians are interested in us doing that either.”
source:
http://www.semp.us/publications/biot_reader.php?BiotID=219
December 19, 2009 at 12:03
Non-Arab Arab
Indeed, Wahid Farid is right, that was a complete obfuscating non-denial denial by the AFRICOM guy. If there is one thing that I have learned from bureaucrats and spokesmen over the years (of any country, the US most definitely included), it is that the greater the precision of the words, the more likely that they are deliberately lying. The weight of evidence from past behavior and current US military trends pre- and now definitely post-Obama is such that Occam’s razor dictates the most likely answer here is that the US military is lying through it’s teeth.
As per what the Algerian motivations might be, Al-Jazeera had a piece when Zitout first came out which quite clearly laid out several possible motivations. Mideastwire translated something very similar from him via Quds Press (since I have that one handy and it’s in English) which I’ll copy below. Some of the items on the wish list might be fanciful, but getting even a couple of those items at the US (key weapons sales, getting “security” contracts to military and/or ex-military men, etc.) seem to be quite obtainable bribes to achieve in this context.
http://www.mideastwire.com/topstory.php?id=33086
2009-12-14 00:00:00 : Algeria > Politics
“Zaitout: reports about Algeria-US agreement over temporary military bases”
On December 11, the independent Quds Press News Agency carried the following report: “An Algerian political activist and opposition member revealed the content of an Algerian-American accord over the use of the Algerian territories by the American military forces. He said that this accord was more efficient and beneficial to both sides than the establishment of a permanent base for the AFRICOM forces in the Algerian South.
“Indeed, former diplomat and the founder of the Algerian “Rashad” movement Mohamed Larbi Zaitout said in exclusive statements to Quds Press that the Algerian government seized the opportunity of the Algerian-Egyptian dispute which erupted after the Algerian team qualified to play in the World Cup games in South Africa in 2010 – and which took dimensions that were described as being “hysterical” – to reach a consensual formula over the use of the Algerian territories by the American forces in any military operation…
“He said: “Reports started circulating regarding the fact that the Algerian-American talks which were launched a few months ago when Algeria rejected the idea of a permanent base and when Algerian officers proposed the idea of temporary agreements…, ended with an agreement over a formula to establish temporary and mobile American bases through which the Algerian, Malian, Nigerian, Mauritanian and Chadian territories are used whenever necessary.”
“Zaitout then indicated that this formula met mutual American and Algerian demands, saying: “This agreement will firstly spare the Arab and African governments, including the Algerian one, from any embarrassment before their people, while the American troops will not look as though they are new forces of colonialism. These temporary agreements will also lower the financial costs of the establishment of permanent bases and will allow the American forces to move around the region whenever they are called on to do so.” He then mentioned that in order to facilitate the implementation of this agreement on the ground, around 40 private security companies were established, some of which American, French and Western and others with the participation of Algerian security companies established by former senior officers in the Algerian army.
“He added: “These companies which have been present on the ground for years, will provide logistical support to the American forces when necessary,” indicating: “Algeria offered that in exchange for the deepening of strategic cooperation with the US and due to the wish to gain a foreign strategic ally from outside the NATO instead of Morocco which remained America’s ally for decades.”
“He continued: “Moreover, Algeria has three temporary demands. The first is for America to support the Algerian viewpoint in regard to the Western Sahara issue and for Washington to adopt a middle ground position over this case for which Algeria has allocated massive financial, political, diplomatic and even military resources throughout the past three or four decades. The second is to receive special military equipment which America has been refusing to sell to Algeria. As for the third, it is for Washington to protect the senior generals who were involved in the massacres perpetrated during the filthy war seen in the nineties of the last century in Algeria from any pursuit by the Western courts.”” – Quds Press Agency, United Kingdom
December 19, 2009 at 12:34
Non-Arab Arab
Oh, I see in your earlier post you addressed all the arguments Zitout made, my apologies. I guess the only point I’d make is that while your arguments are reasonable, I don’t think they are as watertight as you conclude. Strategic shifts do occur. I might leave it at 50/50 if it was just your arguments against Zitout’s, but I must say the Africom non-denial denial tilted things in favor of me believing the story. Or at least that the US is trying hard to get it and thinks they may be nearing a formula in discussions with the Algerian government where they can extract it. Which would suggest that the discussions are at least serious, whether or not they result in an agreement being concluded. Indeed, maybe the outing of the story will be enough to quash it. Maybe.
December 21, 2009 at 18:04
Tommy Miles
As someone interested in Niger, is this line a typo? Are we talking about Niger or Nigeria having US posts?
“…to establish temporary and mobile American bases through which the Algerian, Malian, Nigerian, Mauritanian and Chadian territories are used whenever necessary.”
December 21, 2009 at 22:10
Vince Crawley
The fact of the matter is, U.S. Africa Command is not looking for basing agreements in Algeria and there have been no recent deals. Reports claiming otherwise are wrong, inaccurate, incorrect. Choose your word.
There were plenty of open source reports several years ago discussing U.S. European Command’s sometime use of an Algerian installation in southern Algeria in the middle part of the decade, long before AFRICOM was created. The world has changed very much in the past half decade, and AFRICOM is focused on long-term partnerships, not on desert bases.
General Ward recently visited Algeria to discuss future military cooperation. Whenever he visits a country, there are news reports and online commentary speculating that he is looking for a base or has struck a secret basing deal. In fact, it is our U.S. Department of State that handles basing rights.
As a result of General Ward’s meetings, there may be increased training with the Algerian military. That would result in U.S. forces temporarily at Algerian bases. But that’s very different from using bases for U.S. military operations, which is not happening.
Respectfully,
Vince Crawley
U.S. Africa Command public affairs
January 1, 2010 at 23:55
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