By Nick Turse
Before the U.S. military began building its $100 million
drone base in Agadez, Niger, U.S. Africa Command and the State
Department took the temperature of locals through public-opinion
surveys. The results indicated mixed feelings about the United States
and its motives in the region — and take on added resonance in the wake
of an ambush last October in Niger that killed four American soldiers.
“The devout of Agadez are divided on variables associated with
violent religious extremism,” reads a military report that contains data
from surveys conducted in 2012 by the polling firm ORB International.
The 2013 report by U.S. Army Africa, which is the Army component of
AFRICOM, is titled “Special Assessment: Agadez, Niger – Strategic
Crossroads in the Sahara,” and was obtained by The Intercept via the
Freedom of Information Act.
A July 2012 survey found that 83 percent of Agadez respondents
believed that American and European cultures pose a threat to
traditional Muslim values. Nearly 50 percent were convinced that the
United States is fighting Islam, rather than terrorism, across the
Muslim world. And 40 percent believed that using violence in the name of
their religion was always or sometimes justified.
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Source: The Intercept_
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