Il Comando USA per le operazioni in Africa, AFRICOM, ha dato il via ad un ponte aereo per trasferire in Darfur, via Ruanda, 75 tonnellate di materiali pesanti (camion per il trasporto carburante, elevatori, depositi d’acqua ed attrezzature varie non meglio specificate), a sostegno dell’ambigua operazione di “peacekeeping” che ONU e Unione Africana sostengono nella regione occidentale del Sudan dal 2004.
La missione aerea, la maggiore mai realizzata da quando il comando è divenuto operativo, prevede l’utilizzo di due aerei cargo C-17 “Globemaster III” dell’Air Mobility Command (AMC), ed è stata autorizzata l’1 gennaio 2009 dal presidente uscente George W. Bush. In una nota inviata alla Segretaria di Stato Condoleezza Rice, è stata definita d’“importanza strategica per gli interessi e la sicurezza degli Stati Uniti d’America”.
Le operazioni di trasporto saranno coordinate dal 618th Tanker Airlift Control Center dell’AMC, con sede presso la Scott Air Force Base, e dalla “Seventeenth Air Force” USA, riattivata nella base tedesca di Ramstein quale principale strumento operativo aereo di AFRICOM.
Secondo Vince Crawley, portavoce del Comando USA per l’Africa, “i velivoli C-17 effettueranno numerosi viaggi tra l’aeroporto di Kigali, Ruanda, ed uno scalo aereo in Darfur non ancora individuato, dove le truppe statunitensi opereranno solo il tempo richiesto per le attività di scarico dei materiali”. Parallelamente al dispositivo attivato dal Pentagono, il Dipartimento di Stato avvierà un analogo intervento in Darfur con fondi propri, che vedrà l’affidamento ad una compagnia aerea privata della movimentazione di circa 240 container di “materiali pesanti” che giungeranno a Port Sudan, città nordorientale sul Mar Rosso.
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Molto probabilmente, il ponte aereo USA-Germania-Ruanda-Sudan coinvolgerà direttamente il nostro paese, in primo luogo la base siciliana di Sigonella, che l’Air Mobility Command vorrebbe trasformare in uno dei principali scali europei dei velivoli cargo e cisterna USA. In un’intervista rilasciata al periodico Air Forces Magazine (novembre 2008), il generale Duncan J. McNabb, la più alta autorità militare nel settore del trasporto aereo statunitense, ha spiegato che “per assicurare il successo dell’intervento in Africa”, è indispensabile “sviluppare le infrastrutture delle basi chiave, come Lajes Field, l’isola Ascensione nell’Atlantico e Sigonella, Sicilia”. “L’Air Mobility Command – ha aggiunto McNabb – sta lavorando con il comando dell’US Air Force in Europa per trasferire in queste installazioni, dalla base aerea di Ramstein, Germania, il traffico aereo di AFRICOM”.
L’Italia, però, non si limiterà a fornire basi logistiche per i velivoli da trasporto delle forze armate USA. Alla vigilia di Natale, il ministro della Difesa Ignazio la Russa, e il capo di stato maggiore Vincenzo Camporini hanno annunciato che le nostre forze armate si stanno preparando a partecipare alla missione congiunta ONU-UA nel Darfur, “mettendo a disposizione i propri velivoli da trasporto e proteggere le popolazioni locali da una sorta di pulizia etnica che in qualche modo si suppone guidata da poteri politici locali”.
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Da Anche l’Italia giocherà un ruolo nel Darfur, di Antonio Mazzeo.
Bye Bye Uncle Sam 
Energy War: NATO meddling in Sudan to block China
by Ali Cordoba
The US is slowly shifting its military needs towards Africa and Sudan in particular. While the Barack Obama administration will force the UN to declare a no-fly zone over Darfur, the US forces in so called peacekeeping missions will establish their bases in Darfur or Kenya and other surrounding nations in order to keep Sudan under its umbrella.
The main objective of the mission in Darfur and the no-fly zone over the region will be to slowly strangulate Sudan’s economy and render it impossible for the Chinese to exploit Sudan’s oil.
The no-fly Zone will be enforced by NATO forces that will be under US command.
On January 14th, the U.S. Air Force has begun airlifting Rwandan peacekeeping equipment and supplies from Kigali to the Darfur Region of Sudan as part of the United Nations-Africa Union peacekeeping mission.
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With the massive movement of NATO forces across the globe from Afghanistan to Sudan and Israel the world seems to be heading for a massive conflict between the Americans and its allies and the rest of the world which comprises of Russia, China and most of the Muslim state. Included in the rest of the world are the ‘socialist’ states in Southern America indeed. Venezuela and Bolivia are also the target of a possible ‘energy’ squeeze in the Southern American region in which NATO forces may altogether be involved soon.
Following the Ukraine declared war on Russian gas, which signalled the beginning of the ‘energy’ war against non-US friendly states, the NATO is shaping up its ‘future’ war strategies with clear goals. The control of all the canals and straights that are not under US/allied occupation.
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Since 2004, the United States has spent more than $15 million to airlift 11,400 peacekeepers and their equipment to and from Darfur and has provided more than $100 million to train and equip those forces, according to a White House fact sheet. Much of this support is coordinated through the U.S. Department of State.
From now on, the US will also count on the AFRICOM or the African Military Command set up at the Pentagon to deliver blows to the nations that are giving leeway to the Chinese and Russian nations. China has a long term deal with Sudan for the exploitation of its oil reserves.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11944
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Global Energy War: Washington’s New Kissinger
The appointment of US Marine General James Jones
by Rick Rozoff
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And in May of 2005 NATO began its first official operation on the African continent, transporting troops to the Darfur region of Sudan, thereby beginning Western military intrusion into the Central African Republic-Chad-Sudan triangle.
Yet the Gulf of Guinea remained the main focus of attention.
No later than 2003 Western news sources reported on a suspected unprecedented oil bonanza in the former Portuguses possessions of Sao Tome and Principe in the Gulf.
Shortly afterward there was talk of the Pentagon establishing a naval base on Sao Tome.
The State Department estimated at the time that the US was then currently importing 15% of its oil from the Gulf of Guinea and that the figure would rise to 25% in a few years.
Western Africa oil offers two key advantages to the US. It’s comparatively high-grade crude and can be transported on tankers directly across the Atlantic Ocean, thereby circumventing straits, canals and other potential chokepoints and attendant customs duties and taxes by littoral nations.
Throughout his time as EUCOM and NATO top military commander Jones touted what he described as ongoing and permanent US and NATO naval presence in the Gulf.
In June of 2006 NATO helds its first large-scale military exercises in Africa, in fact initiating the NATO Rapid Response Force, north of the Gulf in Cape Verde.
Below are accounts of the drills:
“Hundreds of elite North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) troops backed by fighter planes and warships will storm a tiny volcanic island off Africa’s Atlantic coast this week in what the Western alliance hopes will prove a potent demonstration of its ability to project power around the world.” (Associated Press, June 21, 2006)
“Seven thousand NATO troops conducted war games on the Atlantic Ocean island of Cape Verde on Thursday in the latest sign of the alliance’s growing interest in playing a role in Africa. “The land, air and sea exercises were NATO’s first major deployment in Africa and designed to show the former Cold War giant can launch far-flung military operations at short notice. “‘You are seeing the new NATO, the one that has the ability to project stability,’ said NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a news conference after NATO troops stormed a beach on one of the islands on the archipelago in a mock assault on a fictitious terrorist camp. “NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe James Jones, the alliance soldier in charge of NATO operations, said he hoped the two-week Cape Verde exercises would help break down negative images about NATO in Africa and elsewhere.” (Reuters, June 22, 2006)
Jones may have inveigled Reuters with concerns about NATO’s public image, but its rival agency was more forthcoming:
“NATO is developing a special plan to safeguard oil and gas fields in the region, says its Supreme Allied Commander on Europe, Gen. James Jones.
“He said a training session will be held in the Atlantic oceanic area and the Cabo Verde island in June to outline activities to protect the routes transporting oil to Western Europe….Jones said the alliance is ready to ensure the security of oil-producing and transporting regions.” (Associated Press, May 2, 2006)
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http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12143
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