FIRST ON FOX: U.S. armed forces attempting to fight al Qaeda and ISIS jihadist combatants in Niger and other West African nations within the terror-filled Sahel area are allegedly ‘totally unsighted’, subsequent to what a previous high-ranking State Department official informed Fox News Digital was a policy blueprint crafted by the Biden government.
An American military insider who spoke exclusively with Fox News Digital, asserted that presently the Pentagon, when seeking to respond to critical occurrences for instance the Oct. 21 abduction of an American national, is encountering ‘a void’.
The U.S. maintained a pair of airfields in Niger until September of the prior year. American reconnaissance drones functioned from the facilities, employing advanced cameras to observe through dense woodlands to pinpoint terror factions, and were believed to be instrumental in finding another American Niger resident who was abducted in 2020, during the initial Trump administration. Washington dispatched Seal Team Six to effectively liberate that individual.
As per the military insider, Niger desired Washington to sustain its Niger outposts. However, in March of the prior year, Niger voiced grievances regarding the ‘patronizing demeanor’ of a U.S. delegation dispatched to Niger by the Biden government, and instructed all American base staff to vacate.
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Niger’s government spokesperson, Amadou Adramane, appeared on public broadcast subsequent to the dialogue, on March 16, lamenting that the preceding administration’s functionaries did not adhere to diplomatic procedure, adding “Niger disapproves of the American delegation’s aspiration to deny the sovereign Nigerien populace the entitlement to designate their collaborators and forms of alliances.”
Adramane proceeded: “Furthermore, the Niger government firmly denounces the condescending manner accompanied by the threat of reprisal from the American delegation leader directed towards the Nigerien government and its citizenry.”
Mary “Molly” Phee, at that time Assistant Secretary of State under the Biden government, was assigned the role of directing the U.S. contingent during their engagement with Niger’s military command. Numerous sources indicated that as the head of the delegation, she insisted that the nation cease relations with Russia and Iran, or confront repercussions.
One source revealed to Fox News Digital that she ‘verbally attacked’ Niger’s leaders during the assembly, incorporating that the “outburst resulted in our expulsion.” The Washington Post similarly conveyed that the Nigerien figures took particular offense at her statements.
On Saturday, Phee, now in retirement, communicated to Fox News Digital, “It exemplifies a typical scenario of holding the bearer of information liable if the information is undesirable.”
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Phee conveyed that she was adhering to Biden administration policy, stating, “I am a seasoned diplomat with over three decades of experience, and I was presiding over an interagency contingent deployed to disseminate a proposal formulated and endorsed by the White House. The Nigerien junta rebuffed our proposition and utilized a misogynistic figure of speech to brush aside genuine apprehensions regarding their actions.”
Within months of the Phee contingent’s engagement with Niger’s officials, all U.S. personnel, along with their drones, had departed from Niger, leaving Washington, the military insider alleged, with “no aerial surveillance.”
This prompted the then Commander of the U.S. Africa Command, (AFRICOM) Marine Corps General Michael Langley, to express to military authorities during an African Chiefs of Defense Conference in May, “since our departure from Niger in September of the preceding year, we have been witnessing a surge in offensives by militant extremist entities, not solely in Niger but throughout the Sahel, encompassing Nigeria as well, and originating in – advancing into Burkina Faso and Mali.”
The General appended that terror factions have augmented both their prowess and the ‘spread of weaponry’, deducing “regrettably, with our disengagement from the territory, we have forfeited our capacity to vigilantly monitor these terrorist organizations.”
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The U.S. military insider revealed to Fox News Digital that, “AFRICOM is critically under-resourced, possessing merely one outpost in Djibouti, and some smaller contingents in Somalia and Kenya. The Biden administration persisted in diminishing our budget … we constitute one of the most expansive land areas replete with myriad challenges — Russia, China, narcotics, and terrorism — yet comprise less than 1% of the Department of War’s allocation.”
“Subsequent to the preceding administration causing us to forfeit access to Niger, the Americans and Western authorities are rendered entirely oblivious and incapable of swiftly addressing any situation.”
The source concurred that Seal Team Six could conceivably be redeployed to retrieve this new American kidnap casualty. However, he stated that initially, the retrieval squad necessitates knowledge of the victim’s whereabouts “Had we remained (in Niger), currently… Niger would be considerably more secure, and we would possess aerial surveillance to aid in locating the American missionary … presently, we lack any available resources.”
Rescue, the source informed us, is “arduous to unattainable … initially, we must ascertain the individual’s position.”
Analysts concurred that, notably within the Sahel’s sweltering environments, it poses a challenge for Washington’s supplementary ‘eyes’, satellites, to efficiently track the victim.
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The State Department has disseminated its utmost severe travel advisory warning, declaring “Refrain from journeying to Niger for any justification attributable to crime, turmoil, terrorism, health concerns, and abduction.”
Fox News Digital contacted AFRICOM, the Department of War, and the State Department on multiple occasions, however, as of the period of publication, there had been no response.
