10-19-2017, 10:46 PM
Rachel Maddow just mentioned that Chad, a reliable and effective US ally in the Lake Chad Basin, had largely swept Boko Haram/Isis from Niger this year, but shortly after they were placed on the new Muslim travel ban list, they pulled out of Niger. As a result, she claims, large numbers of the terrorist group re-infiltrated. One wonders if one consequence could be the recent ambush in which 4 Americans were killed. There could be other reasons as well, as it look like the US was relying on FRench and contractors to secure the area and clean up after the fight.
Comparisons to Benghazi are emerging. I hope Democrats and reasonable Republicans push for a reasonable and limited investigation. No calls for Trump to publicly apologize to the families.
No president or regional command can control everything that happens on the ground, and we should not automatically assume negligence when people on dangerous missions die. At this point though, we can raise questions.
I don't see much analysis of this yet. Here are a couple of otherwise informative links, though.
US has drones and hundreds of troops in Niger. Here's why
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/18/politics/niger-american-troops-drones/index.html
Chad landed on Trump travel ban list after it ran out of paper to process passports
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/chad-landed-trump-travel-ban-list-paper-shortage-article-1.3572644
WASHINGTON — This is the story of how an office supply glitch became a major irritant between the United States and one of its close security partners.
When President Donald Trump added the African nation of Chad last month to his most recent installment of travel restrictions, everyone from the Pentagon to Chad's leaders to the French government was perplexed. The U.S. has praised Chad's cooperation on counterterrorism, especially its campaign against a vicious Boko Haram insurgency spilling over from Nigeria.
As it turns out, a seemingly pedestrian issue was largely to blame: Chad had run out of passport paper.
Chad and every other country had been given 50 days to prove it was meeting a "baseline" of security conditions the Trump administration says is needed for the U.S. to properly screen potential visitors. One condition was that countries provide a recent sample of its passports so that the Homeland Security Department could analyze how secure they really are.
Homeland Security, working with the White House, pushed Chad onto the list without significant input from the State Department or the Defense Department, said a congressional official briefed on the process who wasn't authorized to discuss it publicly and requested anonymity.
Other officials said once the other national security agencies learned of the plan to add Chad, they objected vehemently, but were overruled.[/i]
Comparisons to Benghazi are emerging. I hope Democrats and reasonable Republicans push for a reasonable and limited investigation. No calls for Trump to publicly apologize to the families.
No president or regional command can control everything that happens on the ground, and we should not automatically assume negligence when people on dangerous missions die. At this point though, we can raise questions.
I don't see much analysis of this yet. Here are a couple of otherwise informative links, though.
US has drones and hundreds of troops in Niger. Here's why
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/18/politics/niger-american-troops-drones/index.html
Chad landed on Trump travel ban list after it ran out of paper to process passports
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/chad-landed-trump-travel-ban-list-paper-shortage-article-1.3572644
WASHINGTON — This is the story of how an office supply glitch became a major irritant between the United States and one of its close security partners.
When President Donald Trump added the African nation of Chad last month to his most recent installment of travel restrictions, everyone from the Pentagon to Chad's leaders to the French government was perplexed. The U.S. has praised Chad's cooperation on counterterrorism, especially its campaign against a vicious Boko Haram insurgency spilling over from Nigeria.
As it turns out, a seemingly pedestrian issue was largely to blame: Chad had run out of passport paper.
Chad and every other country had been given 50 days to prove it was meeting a "baseline" of security conditions the Trump administration says is needed for the U.S. to properly screen potential visitors. One condition was that countries provide a recent sample of its passports so that the Homeland Security Department could analyze how secure they really are.
Homeland Security, working with the White House, pushed Chad onto the list without significant input from the State Department or the Defense Department, said a congressional official briefed on the process who wasn't authorized to discuss it publicly and requested anonymity.
Other officials said once the other national security agencies learned of the plan to add Chad, they objected vehemently, but were overruled.[/i]
![[Image: 4CV0TeR.png]](https://i.imgur.com/4CV0TeR.png)
