In search: Headquarters for Africom

[Jacaylbaro]

According to The Guardian Weekly of June 29th 2007, a US delegation spent a month in Africa seeking a country to host the headquarters of Africom. The countries visited whose leaders apparently turn down the request were:

 

Algeria, Morocco and Libya. The reason for their rejection, according to Rachid Tlemcani, a professor of political science at the University of Algiers, is simple: the governments of those African countries, whom it must be said clearly, snubbed the US request, were manifesting the wishes of the people. This sounds deeply awkward, for most African governments, in particular those North of Africa, have never done anything that shows or showed, they respect or respected the wishes of those they are now claiming to reflect their views and opinions, in order to justify their refusal to give the US a helping hand. Perhaps their reactions are an indication that, democracy can’t be introduced into a country with tanks only. If that is the case, then, North Africans are now ready to enter a new era of freedoms of speech, religion and choice.

 

 

 

While those countries are free to take decisions that suit them, it is strange that, Morocco, a supposed friend of the United States has refused to host Africom headquarters. For the United States is a strong ally of the Moroccan monarchy, helping and supporting her to invade and occupy Western Sahara. American supports to the corrupt North African Kingdom don’t only end with helping her to occupy another African country, as it happened in 1975. The US, through mainly Republican senators from Florida and other lobby groups in Washington DC, helps Morocco to snub and defy the UN with an equanimity only equated by Iraq under late Saddam Hussein. One would expect that, all African countries may refuse to host Africom, but not Morocco. As the saying goes, unless the wind blows, you can see the anus of a hen. I think the US will or have now learn that, the cold war rule that made her to close her eyes over Morocco’s occupation of Western Sahara and her multiple human rights violations, are over.

 

 

 

The United States must also know that, the supports she grants to corrupt regimes such as those in North Africa and the Middle East are fuel in the engines of the very Islamic terrorists, she wants to destroy and not the contrary. Furthermore, I think the reaction of Morocco is an eye opener to the US government. She will now understand that, the so-called friendly regimes or useful dictatorships, phrases coined by Washington DC strategists are useless. However, to achieve the victorious fight against terrorism, the battle rest on four pillars: education, massive economic help or investments, support for real democracy and the fight against dictatorships and the corruptions they breed.

 

 

 

Since February this year, when the US government decided to create a special military command for the continent, it was enough for US to have known or sorted out countries on the continent that would have opened their arms wide to host Africom. More so, accepting to host in exchange for nothing. Why? Simply because, a US military Command, creates jobs and contributes in the growth of the local economy. Ask any ordinary French man or woman, and not the hypocritical proud French elites, if they were happy with the decision of their late Dictator General Charles De Gaulle to close down US bases in France in 1966, their answer will be an emphatic: “Non”. In anticipation that, the US government will come back to their senses and stop their obsession with getting a base for Africom in North Africa, the US military operation in Africa are now jointly commanded from Central Command based in Florida and the headquarters if the European Central Command based in Stuttgart, Germany.

 

 

Oooooooops

[Fabregas]

Berbera would be probably be an ideal location, not that I would ever wish such a thing to happen.

[Jacaylbaro]

I think Somalia is a news place that the write forgot to mention ,,,,, if they succeed to capture the country by their slaves (ethiopia) then they will never need other countries that are asking for a deal or something ........

[Fabregas]

It is probably better to make oil/reconstruction deals with China, they won't ask nothing like democracy of fighting terrorism. This whole command thing saliid iyo wax kale baa lagu radinaya. But it looks like they have competition from the Chinese. They put sanctions against Iran and Sudan but they just trade and sell oil to China.

[ElPunto]

^I'm not sure why they don't make the HQ in Djibouti. They are already there in force and and the President would welcome them with open arms. Perhaps it's too primitive.

[Jabhad]

Ethiopia: U.S. to Build Largest Embassy Structure in Addis

 

 

 

 

Addis Fortune (Addis Ababa)

 

10 July 2007

Posted to the web 10 July 2007

 

Tamrat G. Giorgis

 

 

The United States (US) government is soon to erect perhaps its largest single structure in Africa, in the compound of its Embassy in Addis Abeba, which is also one of the three largest embassies it has on the continent. When the construction is completed in three years, the four-storey building is projected to consume a total investment of 140 million dollars.

 

This investment will be one of two such projects in the Horn of Africa; the US government also plans to build a brand new Embassy in Djibouti City, projected to cost 100 million dollars.

 

 

Clearing works inside the Embassy compound in Addis Abeba has already begun, although the construction contract is due to be awarded to an American firm in October 2007, according to senior diplomatic sources. The firm to be awarded the project is, however, expected to sub-contract much of the local component to local construction firms, and anticipated to offer job opportunities to over a 1,000 people, according to these sources.

 

"More than the employment opportunities, we at the Embassy are very excited for the technology transfer this project will bring to local companies," Donald Yamamoto, US ambassador to Ethiopia, told Fortune.

 

The four-storey building, depicting a ship, will be erected right in front of his residence, on the vast green area. It will serve as offices to the various bureaus the Embassy has inside the compound.

 

Relevant Links

 

East Africa

Ethiopia

United States, Canada and Africa

 

 

 

The US Embassy in Addis Abeba was moved from its previous location in Mercato, a.k.a. American Gibe, to its current location in 1945. The white building that serves as the ambassadors' residence, recently renamed after President Theodore Roosevelt, was first built in 1920 by the Japanese, who used it as their first legation before they were expelled from the country for their support of the Italian occupation of Ethiopia.

 

It was during President Roosevelt's reign in the White House that the US started a diplomatic relationship with Ethiopia. Mr. Robert P. Skinner, the US's consul-general in Marseilles, France, visited Emperor Menelik's court in Addis Abeba in December 1903.

 

The Americans, however, took the Embassy compound and its buildings, which also incorporate two tukkals, after promising Emperor Haile Sellasie that the residence and the tukkals would always be preserved.

 

http://allafrica.com/stories/200707100815.html

[Jabhad]

^Djibouti is not as strong or as a reliable bet as Ethiopia is now.

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Of course, Itoobiya waa meel ay dowladda Mareykanka isku haleyn karto. Ever wonder why Itoobiya remained intact compared to where our nation stands after 17 years today?

 

Mingiste and Siyaad Barre were overthrew at the same time, only the former remaining in power a brief few months after the Kacaan regime's downfall. Yet Itoobiya is still standing. No paper was stolen the day the hated Mingiste and his family left, let alone wax kale dhaco. Compare it to xoolanimadda Soomaalida u dhaqmaan, oo kala saari waaye dalkooda iyo dadkooda and a few members of a former regime.

 

Mareykanka iyo Galbeedka would never allow Itoobiya inay ku dhacdo wax dalal badan Afrika ka tirsan iyo adduunweynaha kale ku dhacaan. It is a special 'child' of Afrika. Ee marka hala yaabin safaaradaas weyn ee ka dhisanayaan meesha because Mareykanka in the foreseeable time will not allow dalkaas in uu qalalaaso ka dhaco, hadduu ka dhacana only the regimes will change, not a total chaotic collapse as we witness in dalkeena.