Talk:CIA activities in Africa

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[edit] Some notes on CIA in Chad

I don't really have time to put hand to this article now, but I feel I must tell that the section on Chad is a mess. To just put a few, point one: the Aouzou strip was annexed in 1972-73, and took place while Tombalbaye was president and Habré and armed rebel called "Africa's Mao", and not certainly an enemy of Qadhafi. point two: before 1978 there was no position of Prime Minister in Chad, when it was created in a reconciliation attempt for Habré; only then Malloum became President, till then he held power as chairman of the Supreme Military Council. point 3: his term didn't expire in 1979, he was overthrown during the downfall of all state institutions. point 4: Goukouni wasn't "elected", as part of an accord between Goukouni and Habré he was made Chairman of the Transitional Government of National Unity, while Habré took the Defence ministry. The accord broke down in renwed civil war in 1980, and Goukouni called for Libyan help, that successfully took the capital in December 1980. At this point, increasing Western and African pressures and personal suspicions on vested Libyan interests brought Goukouni to demand the Libyans to retire from Chad (and so no, they weren't defeated from Habré) point five: "The United States used a clandestine base in Chad to train captured Libyan soldiers whom it was organizing into an anti-Gaddafi force." Look that this didn't happen before 1987, during the Toyota War (see also Chadian-Libyan conflict). Point five: this should be on CIA activities in Africa, and as such doesn't concern the department of State and USAID. Point six: All this returning on and on and on on how much the US couldn't care less of what a nice guy is hardly very relevant and should be left to a few lines, because it's off-topic. Point six: This isn't an article on the DDS, or on the crimes made by Habré; as I said before, I see a serious loss of focus.--Aldux (talk) 18:16, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

I am not suggesting the sources I had were ideal, and if you can suggest others, that's great. Let me make a general observation: there have been a number of cases, not necessarily, here, where "CIA" is being used as a synonym for "US government". If there are some statements that CIA did something and also an argument that Defense, State, AID, or Agriculture actually did it, that can be useful disambiguation. Sources are welcome. Howard C. Berkowitz (talk) 19:19, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Well, the best source are generally thought to be Buijtenhuijs' Le Frolinat et les guerres civiles au Tchad and Nolutshungu's Limits of Anarchy; unfortunately, you won't find much online, I had to order them through abebooks. One of your resources, the Habré Legacy, is actually quite good in relating the activities of the DDS, a topic of which Nolutshungu was only partly interested and was not really covered by Buijtenhuijs' work, which ends in 1986 (but already 1985-86 are a bit sketchy, compared to the previous years).--Aldux (talk) 20:40, 3 January 2008 (UTC)