As is often the case, Rachel Maddow connected the dots last night.
Background: Chad has been an excellent ally against extremist Islamic forces in Saharan Africa, with the most experienced troops in the region, crucial in victories against ISIS-related groups in Niger & Mali, continuing to protect villages there. International co-operating forces put their headquarters in Chad’s capital city.
Here’s the chain of events she mentions, in chronological order:
1) Chad lays a massive fine on Exxon for non-payment of taxes and royalties owing for their extraction of Chadian oil. Negotiations are still happening in November 2016. Rex Tillerson is CEO, having not yet become Secretary of State. The suit is eventually settled in June 2017 for undisclosed amounts.
2) Sept. 24: New travel ban announced, mysteriously including Chad. One explanation given: it couldn’t provide a newly-printed sample passport to the US for a security check due to a lack of passport paper; US refuses to use an existing passport. Experts are baffled, including the former US state department’s expert, who predicts: “This is a very draconian move that could put Americans in harm’s way.”
3) Sept. 29-Oct. 13: Chad withdraws all troops from Niger.
4) Oct. 4: Sgt. La David Johnson and three other Special Forces soldiers are ambushed and killed by ISIS-connected extremists in Niger. Johnson is possibly left alive but wounded, to be brutally killed.
5) Oct. 5: an NSC official drafts a gracious and sympathetic condolence message for Trump to deliver, as is standard practice — but it is never delivered. When a reporter calls the official to ask why, she hangs up.
6) Oct. 16: a reporter asks Trump why the silence on the four deaths… and you know the rest.
So — was Chad’s inclusion on the travel ban list revenge for Chad’s fines against Exxon? Vindictiveness is certainly in Trump’s nature, so it would not surprise me. So is inappropriate silence — he hasn’t tweeted a word about fires devastating a state that would not vote for him either.
It also wouldn’t surprise me to find out that these very powerful white men had no qualms against screwing over a mostly-black country. This whole story is stained with ugly racist overtones, from that possibility to the shabby treatment of Johnson’s grieving family by Trump and his chief of staff John Kelly to the demonization and dehumanization of Frederica Wilson. Lawrence O’Donnell nailed this last night, particularly about Kelly’s racism.
I am very much looking forward to more of this story coming out, as well as more on what exactly happened on the ground during and after the ambush. Especially since Trump’s silence was possibly due to him ultimately being responsible.
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