Contractors run U.S. spying missions in Africa
ENTEBBE, Uganda Four small, white passenger planes sit outside a hangar here under a blazing sun, with no exterior markings save for U.S. registration numbers painted on the tails. A few burly men wearing aviator sunglasses and short haircuts poke silently around the wing flaps and landing gear.
The aircraft are Pilatus PC-12s, turboprops favored by the U.S. Special Operations forces for stealth missions precisely because of their nondescript appearance. There is no hint that they are carrying high-tech sensors and cameras that can film man-size targets from 10 miles away.
To further disguise the mission, the U.S. military has taken another unusual step: It has largely outsourced the spying operation to private contractors. The contractors supply the aircraft as well as the pilots, mechanics and other personnel to help process electronic intelligence collected from the airspace over Uganda, Congo, South Sudan and the Central African Republic.
In October, President Obama sent about 100 elite U.S. troops to central Africa to scour the terrain for Joseph Kony, the messianic and brutal leader of a Ugandan rebel group. But American contractors have been secretly searching for Kony from the skies long before that, at least since 2009, under a project code-named Tusker Sand, according to documents and people familiar with the operation.
More at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/contractors-run-us-spying-missions-in-africa/2012/06/14/gJQAvC4RdV_story.html
(May need a WaPo account.)
xchrom
(108,903 posts)cbrer
(1,831 posts)I appreciate the heads up, but Presidents have had this MO for quite a while now. At least since Carter.
Or is the geographical reference your point? Sometimes typed discussions seem a little unclear to me. If so, may I point out that we've had major encampments in Djibouti, and Eritrea for a long time now. Not counting the forays into Libya and Egypt.
But contractors are a form of dodging some legal entanglements, as well as being much quieter and stealthier. But we can see what BS that is in the electronic age. And yes, they operate drones as well.
Zorro
(15,751 posts)at least not for the past 30 years.
I thought the article and its companion piece were quite informative regarding the extent of US involvement in Africa.
I'm not sure how many, or to what extent, or even if the mission there is purely humanitarian, but I worked about 7 months last year with a contractor who ran a generator station in Eritrea the year before. I'm pretty sure he wasn't lying.
Zorro
(15,751 posts)The current Eritrean government appears quite hostile to the US, and reportedly is providing safe haven to Al Quaeda cells.
cbrer
(1,831 posts)Appearances aren't always reality.
but regarding Eritrea, don't see the reason why the US would have an active physical presence there, since we're already in Djibouti, Somalia, and Ethiopia.
The fact that we do have an open relationship with Ethiopia would poison any attempts to establish a similar one with Eritrea, I'd think.
But then, strange bedfellows and so on...
I've been contracting for 4 years now, and I understand about 30-40% of the decisions made that I'm aware of.
And that little bit is removed from policy making by about 4 light years.
Strange bedfellows indeed...