The Business of War: Making a Killing
From The Center for Public Integrity, 28 October 2002
By the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
The Business of War: Making a Killing
An area of vital interest
In April 2001, an MPRI representative met with the Pentagon’s regional director for Central Africa to discuss the company’s hopes of winning the contract to train Equatorial Guinea’s forces. “They may need our help or moral support,” Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski wrote in a memo on the meeting, obtained by ICIJ under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. She quoted the MPRI representative as saying that Equatorial Guinea was “the Kuwait of the Gulf of Guinea” and, in a briefing paper three months later, advanced that characterization to “a possible ‘Kuwait of Africa’ with huge oil reserves” that was “US-friendly for both investment and security reasons.” Kwiatkowski also noted in her April memo that the highest-ranking U.S. official to meet with Obiang when he visited Washington early in 2001 was an assistant secretary of agriculture – that after French President Jacques Chirac had spared time to meet with him.
Despite concerns about Equatorial Guinea’s human rights record, Obiang’s currency rose dramatically after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. When he visited the United States as it marked the first anniversary of the attacks, Obiang was among 10 African leaders to meet with President George Bush for talks on the prospect of war with Iraq and peace and development on the African continent.
His visit was preceded by a report from the African Oil Policy Initiative Group – an ad-hoc coalition of Africa consultants, energy executives and staff from a U.S. congressional subcommittee on Africa. Titled “African Oil: A Priority for U.S. National Security and African Development,” the report recommended that Congress and the White House declare the Gulf of Guinea an “area of vital interest” to the United States – a designation never before extended to any region of Africa – giving it strategic and military priority. The Africa Oil Policy Initiative Group is led by Robert Heiler and Paul Michael Wihbey of the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies, a conservative Jerusalem-based think tank which maintains that West African oil “can help stabilize the Middle East, end Muslim terror and secure a measure of energy security.”
“For too long official Washington has been gripped by the perception that the United States has no vital interests in the sub-Saharan Africa. Nothing could be further from the truth,” the June 2002 report said. “As the political and security conditions of the Persian Gulf deteriorate, the availability and appeal of reliable, alternative sources of oil for the American market grows. African oil is emerging as a clear direction U.S policy should take to provide a secure source of energy.”
In July 2002, military officials from the United States, France and Britain met with representatives of the 15-member Economic Community of West African States, known as ECOWAS, for talks on expanding military cooperation with West African countries. The ECOWAS Monitoring Group, a regional peacekeeping force of member country battalions, has already received a $5.3 million early-warning satellite communication system, with financial and technical assistance from the United States and European Union, and says it plans to establish two military bases, including one in a coastal member state.
A senior African security operative based in Malabo told ICIJ in April 2002 that plans were afoot to establish a U.S. military base in the area to guard oil facilities in the Gulf of Guinea. Fradique de Menezes, the president of nearby Sao Tome and Principe, announced in late August 2002 that he had reached agreement with the United States to build a U.S. naval base on the island-nation as “a harbor for aircraft carriers … patrol boats and for Marines stationed in the region,” according to The Associated Press. The president’s announcement followed a visit to Sao Tome in late July by U.S. Gen. Carlton Fulford, deputy commander of the U.S. European Command. So far, the Pentagon has denied any plans to build a U.S. naval base in Sao Tome, but its interest in the region is clear. Michael Westphal, deputy assistant defense secretary for African affairs, told reporters in Washington that the Pentagon planned to increase its military training to individual African nations through organizations such as ECOWAS. He acknowledged that the desire to create stability was linked to the war on terrorism. “Instability creates a vacuum, which can draw terrorists to it.”
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