Report: U.S. mulls African base

[unhappycamper]

Report: U.S. mulls African base
Published: Dec. 14, 2010 at 2:13 PM

ALGIERS, Algeria, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is reported to be seeking "expressions of interest" in building a military airbase in a "North African country," indicating the Americans may be planning to take a more active role in the regional war against al-Qaida.

Intelligence Online, a Paris Web site that specializes in global intelligence, reported the call was issued Dec. 2 but didn't specify which country the Pentagon might have in mind.

The report stressed that "the project is lacking both authorization and funding at the moment, and there's nothing to say that (the airbase) will ever be built."

But it is known that U.S. military planners have been interested in establishing an airbase in the desert region for some time and has in the past focused on Algeria's Tamanrasset facility deep in the Sahara Desert.

The Pentagon has reportedly wanted to find a base to mount aerial surveillance of the region where al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb -- the Arabic word for North Africa -- is operating on an expanding basis.



unhappycamper comment: AFRICOM has been trying trying to find a base in Africa since it was stood up. AFRICOM has been based in Germany since its inception and I think it's moving to VA.

Wisely, no one in Africa wants them there.

[dipsydoodle]

1. The it obviously won't bother them

if Russia and China do the same.

[TomClash]

2. Why?

So China can foreclose on it?

[Gravel Democrat]

3. coup de pied et recommandons