[Peace-discuss] expansion!

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

U.S. Military Shows Interest in Africa
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
 
Filed at 1:16 p.m. ET

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) -- Top U.S. generals are touching down across Africa in 
unusual back-to-back trips, U.S. European Command confirmed Tuesday, part of a 
change in military planning as U.S. interest grows in African terror links and 
African oil.

Trips by two top European Command generals follow last week's similarly 
low-profile Africa visit by the U.S. commander in Europe, Marine Gen. James L. 
Jones.

The generals are leaders in U.S. military proposals to shift from Cold 
War-era troop buildups in western Europe to smaller concentrations closer to the 
world's trouble spots.

Jones' trip included stops in Morocco and Cameroon and talks with leaders of 
the sub-Sahara's military giants, Nigeria and South Africa, European Command 
spokesmen in Stuttgart, Germany said.

This week, European Command deputy head Air Force Gen. Charles Wald also is 
traveling to Nigeria and South Africa, as well as oil-rich Gabon, European 
Command spokesman Maj. Andres Ortegon said.

Meanwhile, U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Kohler is visiting Mauritania, 
Mali and Niger, Ortegon said.

Kohler is the European Command's point man on planning for force 
reconfiguration.

Kohler's trip is part of efforts to build relationships with government 
officials and discuss security issues as well as future exercises, Ortegon said.

An increased focus on Africa comes amid a push by some in the United States 
-- conservative think tanks in particular -- to do more to secure alternatives 
to oil from the volatile Middle East.

West Africa supplies the United States with 15 percent of its oil. The U.S. 
National Intelligence Council has projected the figure will grow to 25 percent 
by 2015.

Western security officials also are concerned about terror along Saharan 
routes linking Arab nations and north and west Africa.

U.S. security think tanks and others have listed Nigeria and Mauritania as 
being among nations that have al-Qaida cells.

The Algeria-based Salafist Group for Call and Combat, a group alleged to have 
links with al-Qaida, is believed to have spread across borders into Niger and 
Mali.

A U.S. State Department program drawing on members of the European Command is 
helping train and equip security forces of Mali, Niger, Mauritania and Chad 
to better guard their borders against incursions by terror groups and others.

Military proposals on overall reconfiguration of forces are awaiting a 
decision from Washington.

The European Command oversees U.S. military for Africa excluding the Horn of 
Africa, site of a U.S. counterterrorism effort for northeast Africa and Yemen. 


Rumsfeld: U.S. Eyeing Uzbekistan for Bases
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
 
Filed at 12:46 p.m. ET

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan (AP) -- The U.S. military is considering this central 
Asian nation for expeditionary bases that could be activated during a crisis, 
but it has no plans to establish a permanent presence in the region, Defense 
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday.

Rumsfeld said he discussed such an arrangement with Uzbekistan President 
Islam Karimov during their meeting. The bases would not be home to U.S. troops but 
instead could handle American troops should the U.S. need a staging area in 
the region.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, Uzbekistan provided U.S. troops a base near its 
border with Afghanistan, from which U.S. troops launched strikes against the 
Taliban, and in 2002, the two countries signed a strategic partnership agreement.

Since then, the Bush administration has praised Uzbekistan's support in the 
war on terror, but Karimov's government has been frequently criticized for 
human rights issues.

Just hours before Rumsfeld's arrival, a Uzbek court reduced the sentence and 
ordered freed a 62-year-old woman convicted of anti-constitutional activity 
after publicizing her son's death in prison from torture by being boiled alive.

The case had received international attention. The woman's family and human 
rights activists said the trial was motivated because she sought justice in her 
son's case, a claim the Uzbek government denies. Fatima Mukadirova's sentence 
was reduced at a hearing in Tashkent City Court from six years in prison to a 
$283 fine because of her age and gender.

Rumsfeld acknowledged human rights issues were part of his discussion with 
senior Uzbek leaders. He deferred questions on the woman's case to comments from 
the U.S. ambassador, which were supportive of her expected release.

``The relationships between sovereign nations tend not to be on a single 
pillar,'' Rumsfeld told reporters at a press conference. For Uzbekistan, that 
includes economic, political, security and human rights issues, he said.

Uzbekistan failed last year to make improvements in human rights under 
requirements for funding under a U.S. nonproliferation program, forcing President 
Bush in December to grant a waiver in the interests of national security.

The strategic partnership agreement between the countries also requires 
progress on human rights for the Uzbek government to receive some U.S. aid.

Rumsfeld is also to travel to Kazakhstan and Afghanistan before heading 
Thursday back to Washington. On Monday, he visited with U.S. troops and Iraqi 
security forces in Baghdad.