Ghana US Naval Partnering – Hosting a US Sea Base?

By Nana Akyea Mensah

… when somebody gives you a gift, the purpose is mostly to compromise your decision making. – Obenfo

The United States (US) Government on Saturday, presented four speed patrol boats to the Ghana Navy, to help ensure maritime safety and security. – Sekondi, March 13, GNA

Ms Julie Furuta-Toy, Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Ghana presented certificates on the boats to Lieutenant-General Joseph Henry Smith (rtd), Minister of Defense, at a ceremony at the Western Naval Command in Sekondi.

Lt-General Smith thanked the US Government for the gift, which he said is an expression of the cordial relationship between the two countries and hoped the friendship between the two countries would be further strengthened. He spoke of the economic, social and security assistance the country has received from US government over the years, saying that, Ghana had received security assistance such as the International Military Education and Training (IMET) and the African Contingency Training Assistance (ACOTA) programmes.

Lt-General Smith said USS Gunston Hall; a US Naval is presently berthed at the Western Naval Command for the 2010 Africa Partnership Training Programme. He said the government is committed to equipping the Ghana Navy, to play a pivotal role in the protection of the countries maritime resources, especially fisheries stock and the oil find. He said steps were being taken to complete the Slipway and the Test bench Projects at the Sekondi Naval Dockyard to enhance fleet maintenance and ensure availability of ships to perform assigned roles.


Miss Furuta-Toy said the four boats are meant to augment three defender boats presented to the Ghana Navy in October 2008. She said the US is proud of its multi-national military partnerships, and that from 2008 to 2009, five West and Central African Countries received 17 identical defender class boats.

The US African Partnership Station, currently led in West Africa by the USS Gunston Hall has been engaged in training missions. Sammy Darko, one of the Ghanaian reporters hosted by the US Africa Command in its Stuttgart headquarters, was on board the USS Gunston Hall and a witness to the training. It looks like he is an embedded reporter in the way the US military has used reporters in the US media. He writes for JoyFM, myjoyonline.com:

The United States Africa Command is collaborating with the Ghana navy to patrol the country's high seas.

The naval commands say the surveillance has become necessary to check increasing illegal activities such as drug trafficking, fishing and dumping of waste along the West coast.

The project will also involve training for Ghana's Navy and logistical support.

Joy FM's Sammy Darko will be on the patrol ship and he believes the trip will be a challenging one.

Expectations
The capacity of the Ghana Navy is soon expected to be boosted to a level where they can ward off most illegal activities on the high seas.

In recent times, concerns have been raised about the country's inability to combat drug traffickers, illegal fishing and dumping of waste on the high seas.

That is because the Navy lacks the equipment and required skills to do so.

But the US Africa Command is hoping to reverse the trend with its African partnership station.

Pirates on high seas
The object of this program is to improve maritime safety and security on the African continent.

Under the program, officers of the Ghana Navy will be given professional training and provided with some logistics to aid in patrol offshore.

For instance, under this exercise the US has given Ghana four defender class boats for surveillance. These are fast speed boats attached to a vessel to chase out criminals on the high seas.

The training is considered crucial as the nation prepares to sell its oil in commercial quantities in the last quarter of this year.

So for the next eight days, my job on this trip will be to observe and if possible, assist in the arrest of criminals.

Mr. Darko has a unique opportunity. I hope he learns much from his chance to observe. In another article from March 2010 in his blog he writes:

Seventeen Ghanaian Navy officers and sailors are receiving training on how to secure the nations maritime boundary on a US naval ship currently on sail on the gulf of Guinea.

Also onboard the ship are navy officers from other West African countries. The idea is to pull together synergy on how to check insecurity on the African waters in recent times.

The training is being organized by the United States naval forces Africa and its partners under a program code named African partnership station.

The reporter is currently onboard the USS Gunston hall currently enroute to Sao Tome and Principe to deliver some items. It will take us roughly four days to get there.

To give you an idea about the ship I am on, picture two football fields put together, that is how big this ship is.

It is a well equipped vessel. Inside this ship are several lecture halls where naval officers from Ghana and other West African countries are undergoing tutorials on a wide range of maritime courses with emphasis on professional development, respond capabilities, and infrastructural development.

Some of the students tell me the lessons have been very useful. ” I have learnt how to administer first aid to any of my offers if they were to suffer injury- A ghanaian naval officer said”.

For the next seven days, trainees are expected to also undergo practical training as we sail to Sao Tome and back to Tema.

There is no question that both the training and equipment are useful and much needed in Ghana. The drug trade plus trade in other contraband, the illegal fishing and dumping are a plague on Ghanaian shores and all African shores. The US military is actively targeting Africa. With a seabase, the US may have the equivalent of a base in Ghana, without an actual land base. All the arrows point to Africa in the USMC map of the future global security environment pictured below. You can read the planning and the rational in the text on the graphic, also reprinted below. Of course a great deal of US policy is exacerbating these problems rather than helping resolve them, as discussed in many contexts over several years on this blog.

The text reads:
Future Security Environment (PDF p.3)
“Hybrid” Threats &
Challenges …
Largely in the Littorals
ARC OF INSTABILITY
• Nuclear armed states
• Top ten oil reserves
• Significant drug regions
• Anti-West attitudes
• Increasing Global Interdependence
• Emerging Global Powers
• Improved anti-access weapons
• “Haves” vs “Have Nots”
The “asymmetrical kind of war” we face today will last at least two decades…

The African Partnership Station is an active part of the seabase concept The original of the above graphic is at Seabasing Concepts and Programs PDF, but it may not be possible to connect from IP addresses outside the US. As you can see from the words along the bottom, they are preparing for a war they expect to last at least 2o years. As has been discussed on this blog many times, in respect to many countries, much of this war will be self fulfilling prophecy, the result of militarization: training, and arming the continent. The US sees sea basing as the way to use its military to police and control the world, and particularly the oil and other resources it covets from Africa. And because the US military is overextended, they will be using military contractors for a lot of this arming and training activity, making them even less accountable.

The US appears to have given up on putting an Africa Command headquarters in Africa. At present it looks likely to stay in Stuttgart, or move to the continental United States. With seabasing, the Africa Command does not need a land base in Africa. It can bring an immense base offshore of any country with a coastline. So you may:

Imagine a future where the people of countries at odds with U.S. policies suddenly find America's “massive seaborne platforms” floating just outside their territorial waters.

Ghanaians remain smart and skeptical, from the five comments at myjoyonline, two comments are simply grateful for the equipment. The other three follow:

US-Ghana Navy
Posted By: Piorgah Tetteh , 3/18/2010 1:01:42 PM
So finally, the US Africom is using diversionary tactics to invade the continent. They failed to set up a base here and are now coming under the pretext of partnership to operate. The US will go to any length to poke its nose in people's business. Sake of this small oil wey we find…

Azaa Amerika. Atta Mill, shine your eyes.
Yankee Go Home
Posted By: ObibiNIBAKOJO , 3/18/2010 5:41:44 PM
Ghanaman ,the US has double standards and hidden motives…warn president mills and the Ghana Navy…Look at this illegal drugs…the most drugs are here in the US and the Carribean route ……don't let this stupid marines fool you…Ghanaman.

USA IN GHANA? am sad!!!¬!!
Posted By: ab , 3/19/2010 4:26:09 PM
USA oooooh? am supprised they are here too. is because of the oil oooooh Ghana. very soon we will start fight over the oil and they will start selling guns to us at the exchange of oil. USA. is our leaders really reading between two lines at all.

why allowed this people here. my heart is bleeding seriously

The article at GhanaWeb about the donated boats has 42 comments and the majority are skeptical of this military gift, or at the very least are skeptical about US motives, many wonder what he payback will be. Here are a few:

Author: the truth
those are the two agendas for the United state in ghana. africom or oil and i hope god willing our foolish leaders be smart and stay away from the United State. else we are doomed

Author: Obenfo
… apart from food and other humanitarian aid to victim nations of natural disasters, nothing really goes out of the US free without satisfying the American interest.

It is strange why Africans expect things free. I think it's about time we Africans understand that when somebody gives you a gift, the purpose is mostly to compromise your decision making.

My friends, nothing is free in America
so why should Africans expect something free from America without giving back anyting in return?

Most often, it is more dangerous to recieve gifts without a clear cut condition than those with clearly stated conditions, in that sense you can negotiate well and once you meet those conditions you become free.

Author: KOLA,LONDON MAIN
US have been sharing gifts with the Sekondi Naval Base since time immemorial.

Training and development exchange programmes have existed between the two countries as well but it doesn't mean we should sell Ghana to the US …

Author: girls sp
africa command in ghana. mmmm. us naval base in ghana.

The following is a huge graphic that portrays the entire global seabasing concept. There are humanitarian activities that are part of this concept, but they are there to serve the military objective. Acronyms from this graphic are listed below.

acronyms from the graphic:
CSG Carrier Strike Group
ESG Expeditionary Strike Group
GFS Global Fleet Station
HA/DR Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief
MAGTF Marine Air Ground Task Force
MARDET Marine Detachment
MCO Major Combat Operation
MPF(F) Maritime Prepositioning Force (Future)
MEU Marine Expeditionary Unit
NEO Noncombatant Evacuation Operations
SOF Special Operations Forces
SPMAGTF Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force


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