The Real Django In Action...Mali! Where Kwami?

http://www.gsnmagazine.com/node/28391?c=...egislative

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nueland said in a Jan. 30 briefing the U.S. has earmarked $96 million in aid to the African-led International Support Mission (AFISMA) to Mali which is helping to push back the Islamist insurgency there.

http://fff.org/explore-freedom/article/t...st-africa/

Ominously but unsurprisingly, the U.S. military’s Africa Command wants to increase its footprint in northwest Africa. What began as low-profile assistance to France’s campaign to wrest control of northern Mali (a former colony) from unwelcome jihadists could end up becoming something more.

The Washington Post reports that Africom “is preparing to establish a drone base in northwest Africa [probably Niger] so that it can increase surveillance missions on the local affiliate of Al Qaeda and other Islamist extremist groups that American and other Western officials say pose a growing menace to the region.” But before that word “surveillance” can bring a sigh of relief, the Post adds, “For now, officials say they envision flying only unarmed surveillance drones from the base, though they have not ruled out conducting missile strikes at some point if the threat worsens.”