Analysis: Does raid in Somalia to take out a much-wanted al-Qaida operative show new side of AFRICOM

Analysis: Does raid in Somalia to take out a much-wanted al-Qaida operative show new side of AFRICOM?
By John Vandiver, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Friday, September 25, 2009

STUTTGART, Germany — It was an Africa operation unlike so many that came before.

When U.S. Special Forces troops boarded helicopters and swept into southern Somalia earlier this month in a daring daylight raid to take out a much-wanted al-Qaida operative, there were no missiles launched from distant ships or bombs dropped from overhead drones.

The question is whether that hands-on, high-risk Somalia mission is a harbinger of things to come for the new U.S. Africa Command, which until now has stressed cooperation, not commando raids, in its dealings with African nations.

The Sept. 14 operation — which the U.S. military has anonymously confirmed but provided few details about — ran counter to AFRICOM’s broadcast purpose to promote stability through military training partnerships intended to make armies across Africa more professional.

Yet such raids may reveal a hidden iron fist at the heart of the U.S. military mission in Africa, some analysts say -- especially in anarchic places like Somalia, where there is a total security vacuum and where the U.S. military has few alternatives when a high-valued target comes into view.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=65001



uhc comment: The US Empire indeed has a hidden iron fist at the heart of the U.S. military mission in Africa.

But of course I agree, September 14 is the true face of AFRICOM, not the humanitarian BS they peddle in their press releases.