Enough about Sullivan. Let us now turn to
Victoria Nuland, an architect of the 2014
overthrow of the pro-Russian government in
Ukraine, one of the American moves that led
us to where we are, though it was Putin who
initiated the horrid current war. The
ultra-hawkish Nuland was promoted early this
summer by Biden, over the heated objections
of many in the State Department, to be the
acting deputy secretary of state. She has
not been formally nominated as the deputy
for fear that her nomination would lead to a
hellish fight in the Senate.
It was Nuland who was sent last week to
see what could be salvaged after a coup led
to the overthrow of a pro-Western government
in Niger, one of a group of former French
colonies in West Africa that have remained
in the French sphere of influence. President
Mohamed Bazoum, who was democratically
elected, was tossed out of office by a junta
led by the head of his presidential guard,
General Abdourahmane Tchiani. The general
suspended the constitution and jailed
potential political opponents. Five other
military officers were named to his cabinet.
All of this generated enormous public
support on the streets in Niamey, Niger’s
capital—enough support to discourage outside
Western intervention.
There were grim reports in the Western
press that initially viewed the upheaval in
East-West terms: some of the supporters of
the coup were carrying Russian flags as they
marched in the streets. The New York
Times saw the coup as a blow to the
main US ally in the region, Nigerian
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who controls
vast oil and gas reserves. Tinubu threatened
the new government in Niger with military
action unless they returned power to Bazoum.
He set a deadline that passed without any
outside intervention. The revolution in
Niger was not seen by those living in the
region in east-west terms but as a long
needed rejection of long-standing French
economic and political control. It is a
scenario that may be repeated again and
again throughout the French-dominated Sahel
nations in sub-Saharan Africa.
There are distinctions that do not bode
well for the new government in Niger. The
nation is blessed, or perhaps cursed, by
having a significant amount of the remaining
natural uranium deposits in the world. As
the world warms up, a return to nuclear
generated power is seen as inevitable, with
obvious implications for the value of the
stuff underground in Niger. The raw uranium
ore, when separated, filtered and processed
is known worldwide as yellowcake.
The corruption so often “talked about in
Niger is not about petty bribes by
government officials, but about an entire
structure—developed during French colonial
rule—that prevents Niger from establishing
sovereignty over its raw materials and over
its development,” according to a recent
analysis published by Baltimore’s Real News
Network. Three out of four laptops in France
are powered by nuclear energy, much of which
is derived from uranium mines in Niger
effectively controlled by its former
colonial overlord.
Niger is also the home of three American
drone bases targeting Islamic radicals
throughout the region. There are also
undeclared Special Forces outposts in the
region, whose soldiers receive double pay
while on their risky combat assignments. The
American official told me that “the 1,500 US
troops now in Niger are exactly the number
of American troops who were in South Vietnam
at the time John F. Kennedy took over the
presidency in 1961.”
Most important, and little noted in
Western reporting in recent weeks, Niger is
directly in the path of the new
Trans-Saharan pipeline being constructed to
deliver the Nigerian gas to Western Europe.
The pipeline’s importance to Europe’s
economy was heightened last September by the
destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines in
the Baltic Sea.
Into this scene came Victoria Nuland, who
must have drawn the short straw inside the
Biden Administration. She was sent to
negotiate with the new regime and to arrange
a meeting with the ousted President Bazoum,
whose life remains under constant threat
from the governing junta. The New York
Times reported that she got nowhere
after talks she described as “extremely
frank and at times quite difficult.” The
intelligence official put her remarks to
the Times in American military
lingo: “Victoria set out to save the Niger
uranium owners from the barbaric Russians
and got a huge single-finger salute.”
Quieter in recent weeks than Sullivan and
Nuland has been Secretary of State Tony
Blinken. Where was he? I asked that question
of the official, who said that Blinken “has
figured out that the United States”—that is,
our ally Ukraine—“will not win the war”
against Russia. “The word was getting to him
through the Agency [CIA] that the Ukrainian
offense was not going to work. It was a show
by Zelensky and there were some in the
administration who believed his bullshit.
“Blinken wanted to broker a peace deal
between Russia and Ukraine as Kissinger did
in Paris to end the Vietnam war.” Instead,
the official said, “it was going to be a big
lose and Blinken found himself way over his
skis. But he does not want to go down as the
court jester.”
It was at this moment of doubt, the
official said, that Bill Burns, the CIA
director, “made his move to join the sinking
ship.” He was referring to Burns’s speech
earlier this summer at the annual Ditchley
conference near London. He appeared to put
aside his earlier doubts about expanding
NATO to the east and affirmed his support at
least five times for Biden’s program.
“Burns does not lack self-confidence and
ambition,” the intelligence official said,
especially when Blinken, the ardent war
hawk, was suddenly having doubts. Burns
served in a prior administration as deputy
secretary of state and running the CIA was
hardly a just reward.
Burns would not replace a disillusioned
Blinken, but only get a token promotion: an
appointment to Biden’s cabinet. The cabinet
meets no more than once a month and, as
recorded by C-SPAN, the meetings tend to be
tightly scripted affairs and to begin with
the president reading from a prepared text.
Tony Blinken, who publicly vowed just a
few months ago that there would be no
immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, is still in
office and, if asked, would certainly
dispute any notion of discontent with
Zelensky or the administration’s murderous
and failing war policy in Ukraine.
So the White House’s wishful approach to
the war, when it comes to realistic talk to
the American people, will continue apace.
But the end is nearing, even if the
assessments supplied by Biden to the public
are out of a comic strip.
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