Obama Puts American Boots on the Ground in Libya

Oct. 14 (EIRNS)—President Obama yesterday jumped at the chance to expand his foreign military adventures, by sending an initial 14 contractors with military backgrounds to Libya to search for shoulder-fired missiles that were not secured and accounted for after Qaddafi was overthrown by NATO.

Andrew J. Shapiro, Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, said yesterday that the State Department would soon increase the number of former military personnel, now acting as contractors, to 50. While the number of missiles is not known, Shapiro asserted that thousands of shoulder-launched missiles have gone missing in Libya, and that the missiles "could pose a threat to civil aviation," although he admitted there have been no attacks with loose missiles yet.

Thousands of Libyan hand-held missiles were reportedly destroyed by the NATO air campaign during its six-month operation to overthrow Qaddafi. However, the U.S.A. and other NATO sources are saying that the weapons sites were not secured and guarded after the Qaddafi overthrow, and that an unknown number were taken by Libyan rebel militias who flocked to the unguarded storage areas after Qaddafi was defeated.

The seizure of these missiles should have been foreseen since the same thing happened in Iraq after Saddam Hussein was overthrown. The widespread story of their proliferation has become a godsend for Obama and his British backers for three reasons: 1) the unresolved issue provides a pretext for NATO to maintain its war mobilization in Libya, and gives Obama a foot in the door to maintain and increase the number of U.S. military contractors on the ground; 2) it gives the Obama Administration credence when it tells the eight countries in the neighborhood of Libya, as it did last Summer while the military campaign against Qaddafi was still being waged, that they must cooperate with the U.S.A. and NATO in what they call their war on terror; and 3) although the missiles are old and no longer a threat to military aircraft, Shapiro pointed out that civilian aircraft are vulnerable—an implied threat against the U.S. civilian fleet—which gives Obama a pretext to maintain a military alert status which would facilitate his drive for a coup in the United States.

Obama's Africa Deployment Will Embroil U.S. in Perpetual Conflicts

Oct. 14 (EIRNS)—President Obama today announced, in a letter to Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner and President Pro Tempore of the Senate Daniel Inouye, that he had already begun the deployment of American troops into Central Africa.

According to Obama's letter, "On October 12, the initial team of U.S. military personnel with appropriate combat equipment deployed to Uganda." The purpose of the force that is to increase to 100, according to Obama, is to remove Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), and his top commanders, who have conducted atrocities in the 1980s, initially in Uganda, then in South Sudan, Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for more than 20 years.

Spoken as if he would tolerate no objections, Obama stated that, "I have directed this deployment, which is in the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States, pursuant to my constitutional authority to conduct U.S. foreign relations and as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive."

Kony and the LRA are no longer in Uganda, having already been flushed out by Ugandan security forces, and have not carried out any attacks for years. The remnants of the LRA have fled to remote areas in the DRC, the Central African Republic, and South Sudan, according to reports.

A report last year by ENOUGH, a project of the Center for American Progress stated that Kony does not have complete command and control over each LRA unit any longer. Since ENOUGH's purported raison d'être is to attack genocide and crimes against humanity, it would not be making this assessment public in a report unless it were true, and corroborates reports that the LRA remnants, now estimated to total 200-400, are operating as autonomous units under warlords not controlled by Kony.

The deployment is preparing for U.S. military interventions and occupations in Africa. Obama said that "elements of these U.S. forces will deploy into Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo."

Kony has been a protected asset of the financial oligarchy. Efforts by the Ugandan government to capture him have always been stymied by his being tipped off. His location in Central Africa is easily known to advanced sector intelligence agencies through monitoring of his satellite phone.

When the government of Uganda tried to negotiate with Kony, offering amnesty in return for shutting down his operation, the British-founded International Criminal Court forbade Uganda from doing so.