Don't feel like the Lone Ranger. I hadn't heard of AFRICOM either

Rumble in the Jungle: The AFRICOM Boondoggle

Antiwar.com

December 15, 2007

by Werther

The government's assaults on our common sense, our wallets, and our dignity are becoming so numerous that one is hard pressed to keep up. The media pivot like a herd of wildebeests from one scandal to the other – from illegal wiretapping, to torture, to mercenaries, to saber rattling in the Persian Gulf, to $4 billion lost at Homeland Security, to $9 billion stolen in Iraq.

Amid such a blur of perfidy, major events that portend disaster in the future can slip by with barely a notice by the media, by Congress, or by the public at large. For example, does one voter in a hundred know that the Department of Defense has quietly activated a new regional military command? Just type in the acronym "AFRICOM" into a search box, and the reader will find a DOD website that presents the new United States Africa Command, in the same boosterish manner that Microsoft rolls out a new operating platform.

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AFRICOM Commander and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Africa Policy Meet with Egyptian Military LeadershipDiscuss the importance of Egypt to the continent

CAIRO, Egypt, Feb 19, 2008 — General "Kip" Ward, commander of United States Africa Command, and Theresa Whalen, deputy assistant secretary of defense for U.S. Department of Defense policy in Africa, met February 17 with senior Egyptian leadership in the capital city to discuss the special relationship of Egypt with the developing command

AFRICOM Public Affairs Office

United States Africa Command, AFRICOM, is one of six of the Defense Department's regional military headquarters. When fully operational beginning October 2008, AFRICOM will have administrative responsibility for U.S. military support to U.S. government policy in Africa, to include military-to-military relationships with 53 African nations.

Commander: General William E. "Kip" Ward, United States Army
Deputy to the Commander for Military Operations:
Vice Admiral Robert T. Moeller, United States Navy
Deputy to the Commander for Civil-Military Activities:
Ambassador Mary Carlin Yates, United States Department of State

Chain of Command: The commander of AFRICOM reports to the U.S. Secretary of Defense, who reports to the President of the United States. In individual countries, U.S. Ambassadors continue to be the President's personal representatives in diplomatic relations with host nations.