U.S. Paves Way for African Counterdrug Cooperation, Success

By Donna Miles

American Forces Press Service

STUTTGART, Germany – When U.S. Africa Command was garnering unprecedented international attention in October during its campaign to protect Libyan civilians from Moammar Ghadafi’s violent crackdown against a rebellion, the command achieved another, less headline-dominating victory.

Police in Cape Verde, a small group of islands off Africa’s west coast, seized an estimated 3,300 pounds of cocaine in the country’s largest-ever drug bust. The cocaine had originated in South America and was transiting through Cape Verde bound for Europe, Africom officials said.

And as confirmed by an International Institute for Strategic Studies report in April, proceeds from shipments like this one are a major funding source for terrorist activities.

Thanks in large part to the new Africom-funded Counter-Narcotics and Maritime Security Operations Center in Cape Verde, profits from the $100 million in captured cocaine there never made it into terrorists’ hands.

The center, built with about $1.5 million from Africom and formally presented to the Cape Verdean government in May 2010, is enabling the country’s police, coast guard and military to collaborate more closely to crack down on illicit trafficking, piracy and other transnational threats, U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Mark Huebschman said.

“We feel that interagency center was a key asset that helped facilitate this very significant drug seizure,” Huebschman, chief of Africom’s counternarcotics and law enforcement assistance division, told American Forces Press Service.

The center features inter-island communications relays that give Cape Verdean government agencies and offices the ability to share information and coordinate their activities against narco-trafficking and other illegal activities, Huebschman explained.

To complement its operations, the United States also helped Cape Verde upgrade its tiny, four-craft patrol boat fleet and donated another small high-speed vessel.

As a result, Cape Verde is better equipped to monitor and patrol its vast territorial waters and economic exclusion zone, with the United States providing only a supporting role, Huebschman said.

Army Gen. Carter F. Ham, Africom’s commander, called these efforts an example of the capacity-building initiatives that are helping Africans to solve African problems.

Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee in February, Ham called narcotics trafficking a destabilizing influence throughout Africa, particularly in West Africa.

“The Africans are not the overall consumers of these drugs that are coming from Central and South America,” he told the House panel. “But they are the transit point for the narcotics that go into Europe.”

Yet the consequences impact Africa directly, he said, breeding corruption and undermining good governance wherever illegal narcotics flow.

“That,” he told Congress, “works contrary to our national interests.”

As traffickers move cocaine shipments through West Africa, their counterparts in Afghanistan and Pakistan are increasingly funneling heroin shipments through East Africa, Huebschman reported. In addition, traffickers are beginning to pay couriers in drugs rather than cash, he said, creating new local markets for drugs on the continent.

Africom is working with its African partners to confront  drug trafficking head-on, while also drawing on resources and expertise from its staff representatives from the Drug Enforcement Agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, FBI and Coast Guard, all of which have reach-back to their agencies in the United States.

“This is really a problem we have approached through a whole-of-government effort,” Huebschman said.

The efforts run the gamut, from training to building capacity within partners’ civilian law enforcement agencies or equipment for them to operate, to minor construction projects to establish bases for their operations.

“We also do projects that promote information sharing, like computer systems and telecommunications systems,” Huebschman said. “All are geared toward providing these law enforcement agencies with an enhanced capability to be able to attack these drug-trafficking organizations.”

For example, officials used high-tech full-body scanners provided by Africom and ICE-led training to interdict a drug courier at one of Nigeria’s international airports almost immediately after putting the system into operation, Huebschman reported. The scanners have proven so successful in supporting Nigeria’s counternarcotics efforts that the United States last year removed Nigeria from its list of major illicit drug-producing and drug-trafficking countries.

Meanwhile, Africom continues to promote cooperation among its African partners so they can provide a unified front to address the problem.

For example, law enforcement officials from seven West African countries met in Sierre Leone in December to explore ways to curtail drug trafficking in the region. The conference, organized by the U.S. State and Justice departments under the auspices of the West Africa Cooperative Security Initiative, focused heavily on the need to combat transnational organized crime activities, particularly corruption, in West Africa.

A new strategy document developed through that initiative is designed to take this effort to the next level by leveraging ongoing efforts by international partners and organizations: G8 partners, The European Union, the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States, among them.

“We’re trying to approach this problem from an international perspective, and to leverage all the resources and capabilities that these various countries and agencies bring to this challenging problem,” Huebschman said.

Meanwhile, rather than basking in the glory of their recent cocaine interdiction, the Cape Verdeans are continuing to exercise with their counterparts from the United States and Europe to improve their maritime security operations.

They recently took part in the multinational Saharan Express 2012 exercise, part of the Africa Partnership Station mission focused on combating illicit activities -- such as illegal fishing, narcotics-trafficking and piracy -- that are endangering the maritime security in many of the participant nations.

Ten regional militaries participated in the training, conducted off the coasts of Cape Verde, Mauritania, Senegal and The Gambia, with scenarios that included visit, board, search and seizures, search-and-rescue scenarios, medical casualty and radio communication drills, and information management practice techniques.

“We live in a world that is confronted with many problems like piracy, drug trafficking, terrorism, organized crime,” said Col. Alberto Ferdandes, chief of staff for the Cape Verde armed forces. “It’s necessary for each of us to find a solution to respond to these problems in an efficient manner, we need to have a communal response and it is important that we are all prepared so we can produce a unified action.”

“We all know that illegal fishing threatens the food security of our countries,” agreed Senegalese Chief of Naval Staff Adm. Mohamed Sane. “Illegal acts like immigration, arms trafficking, pollution, piracy and terrorism threaten social stability. No maritime power can face these challenges alone.”

(Navy Lt. Nathan Potter, public affairs officer for U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet, contributed to this article.)

Odierno: Army Must Remain Force of Decisive Action

By Jim Garamone

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, July 21, 2011 – The United States must ensure the Army remains “our national force of decisive action” for the security of the nation, President Barack Obama’s choice to be the next Army chief of staff said during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee today.

If the Senate confirms the nomination, Gen. Raymond T. Odierno would succeed Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, whom Obama has nominated to succeed Navy Adm. Mike Mullen as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Odierno, a 1976 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., is commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command.

Over the past decade, the Army has reinvented itself while facing one of the most difficult combat environments imaginable, Odierno said.

“Our leaders at every level have displayed unparalleled ingenuity, flexibility and adaptability,” he said. “Our soldiers have displayed mental and physical toughness and courage under fire. They have transformed the Army into the most versatile, agile, rapidly deployable and sustainable strategic land force in the world today.”

America faces numerous threats in a world going through historic change, the general told the committee. “We face a multitude of security challenges, such as transnational and regional terrorism in places like Yemen, Somalia, North Africa and Pakistan's federally administered tribal areas,” he said. “We have uncertainty surrounding the Arab Spring and the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and we face the challenges of rising powers.”

U.S. financial problems undergird any response, Odierno told the senators.

“I know that, if confirmed, we will face some very difficult resource decisions within the Department of Defense, and as we determine those essential characteristics and capabilities which we need in our joint force to meet our future security challenges,” Odierno said. “I pledge that I will work with everyone to make sure we come up with the right answer and mitigate the risk associated with such.”

Odierno warned the senators not to draw down the Army too fast. Historically, he said, U.S. officials have cut the force too fast and too much. America has not been particularly good at predicting threats or attacks, he added.

“As we make difficult resource decisions,” Odierno said, “we must be thoughtful in understanding the risk we incur to our nation's future security.”

The Army’s priority is providing trained and ready forces to prevail in Iraq and Afghanistan, the general told the panel, but the force needs to do more, such as providing troops in South Korea and Special Forces personnel to work with local people in Africa or South America.

“To do this, we must sustain our all-volunteer Army today and in the future, providing depth and versatility to the joint force,” Odierno said. “An Army that is more efficient in its employment provides greater flexibility for national security decision-makers in defense of our interests at home and abroad.”

But the Army absolutely comes down to soldiers and their families, the general said.

“It’s their dedication and sacrifice that has earned the respect and confidence of the American people as they continue to put their lives in harm’s way for our nation’s security,” he said.

Mullen: Public, Private Efforts Must Help Failed States

By Cheryl Pellerin

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 29, 2011 – Nations and organizations of all kinds must join together to take on the challenges posed by a growing number of weak and failing states, Navy Adm. Mike Mullen said today.

Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke at a launch event for the 2011 Failed States Index, hosted by The Fund for Peace and Business Executives for National Security. The fund has published the index since 2005.

“[For] every single entity that exists on this globe, whether it’s public or private [or] nongovernmental,” Mullen said. “ … It’s imperative that we all figure out how we’re going to address these challenges together because … they are coming at us at a speed that is accelerating.”

The index is an annual ranking of 177 nations using 12 social, economic and political indicators of pressure on the state, along with more than 100 sub-indicators. Indicators include issues like uneven development, state legitimacy, group grievance and human rights.

“In today’s world, many challenges to international peace and prosperity come from nontraditional sources,” said Ken Brill, Institute for Peace president.

“This has direct implications for U.S. national security,” Brill added, “which needs to be thought about and acted on in a broader context than ever before.”

The 2011 index is based on data collected throughout 2010, so it does not account for recent events such as Japan’s major earthquake and tsunami and uprisings across the Middle East.

For the fourth consecutive year, the report ranks Somalia as the No. 1 failed state, citing widespread lawlessness, ineffective government, terrorism, insurgency, crime and pirate attacks against foreign vessels.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Finland, for the first time, displaced Norway from the best position among most stable countries because of slight fluctuations in demographic and economic indicators.

Each indicator used in the ranking is rated on a scale of one to 10 based on the analysis of millions of publicly available documents, other quantitative data and analytic assessments.

A high score indicates high pressure on the state, and therefore a higher risk of instability.

Instability created by failing states threatens the normal function of the international marketplace,” said retired Army Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs, president and chief executive officer of the Business Executives for National Security.

“Private-sector initiatives and investment,” he added, “can combat state fragility, promote stability and prevent conflict.”

Besides Somalia, the top 10 failed states include, in order from the most troubled states, Chad, Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Iraq and Ivory Coast.

“As I look at the failed state index and look at the states that top the list … none of them are surprising,” Mullen said. “What concerns me about that is the need for the global entities that exist to address the challenges.”

Mullen described a principle he said has been with him throughout his career, since he was a young officer deployed to Vietnam in 1969.

“The message that came from the families that I would become familiar with,” Mullen said, was that they were anxious to raise their children to a higher standard of living than they had achieved, and in some semblance of peace and prosperity.

“You need the peace to generate the prosperity to achieve that standard,” he said. “That’s a global standard from my perspective.”

About the positions of Iraq and Afghanistan on the index, Mullen said, “I’ve felt for some time, and I’m not alone in this, that Iraq has resources to generate a thriving economy.

“With the oil resources they have and the appetite the world has for oil,” he added, “I am fairly confident that, over time, Iraq will pull itself out of its place on this index.”

Afghanistan does not have such resources immediately available, the chairman said, but the country can be helped to build its economy enough to improve the lives of its people.

“For both these countries, though, that’s just the economic side,” he said, adding that the index measures governance, security, how the countries’ leaders take care of their people, and other indicators.

For several years, Mullen said, he has worried about Yemen as a potential next place for al Qaida to call home, and the index ranks Yemen as 13th from the top of the most failed states.

While the al Qaida leadership “still resides in the border [area] between Afghanistan and Pakistan,” the chairman said, the federated al Qaida group in Yemen is an “incredibly dangerous group” that has taken full advantage of the chaos there.

While military intervention sometimes is necessary to bring stability, it is never the whole answer to fixing a failed state,” Mullen said.

“The military, the security piece, is a necessary condition, but it is insufficient in and of itself,” he added. “And it’s taking us a long time to figure that out.”

Economic engines – the United States, China, India, Brazil, the Middle East and Europe -- will help create the standard of living that most people want for their children, Mullen said.

“How do we make these economic engines work together so the haves and the have-nots are not as far apart?” he said. “It’s my belief that if they continue to separate … then I think there will be more and more failed states.”

“For those of us in leadership positions, we just can’t keep talking about this,” Mullen said. “We have to generate actions on the ground.”

This Day in Naval History - May 04

By the Navy News Service

1917 - First Navy ships, Destroyer Division 8, arrive at Queenstown, Ireland, to provide convoy escorts against German U-boats.

1942 - Battle of Coral Sea, first carrier vs. carrier battle, begins.

1945 - Japanese attempt to land on Okinawa repulsed; kamikaze attacks damage 6 U.S. Navy ships.

1961 - Cdmr. Malcolm D. Ross, USNR, and medical observer Lt Cmdr. Victor A. Prather Jr., ascended in two hours to over 11,000 feet in Strato-Lab 5, a 411-foot hydrogen filled balloon launched from the deck of USS Antietam. This was the highest altitude attained by man in an open gondola. Tragically, Prather drowned during the recovery.

1994 - Operation Restore Hope begins in Somalia.