Recently, U.S. Marines conducted a “small unmanned-flying vehicle familiarization course” in a military exercise that involved U.S. Moroccan and German militaries in a yearly exercise called Exercise African Lion 13 in Agadir, Morocco. The German military participated in the exercise for the first time.
The exercise involved the RQ-11B Raven known as the “Raven-B”. The Raven-B is a lightweight drone that is hand-held. It would provide the military with reconnaissance, surveillance, and target suspected enemies throughout the world. In a AFRICOM press release ‘U.S., Moroccan, German Service Members Conduct UAV Familiarization’, Sgt. Clayton J. LaGesse, a Marine intelligence specialist said
“The Moroccan and German soldiers went through a quick brief on Small Unmanned Aerial Systems and a flight simulator to get more familiarization with the aircraft.” The drone has numerous capabilities that can be used for both offensive and defensive purposes. AFRICOM states that “An important aspect of the Raven-B is that it provides small units with situational awareness and can be employed in all environments for direct or general reconnaissance as well as offensive and defensive force-protection operations.”
Germany is a member of NATO and Morocco is one of the oldest US allies that had secret CIA prisons used to torture suspected Al-Qaeda members. Russia Today reported the controversial practices conducted by the CIA this past February in an article titled ‘54 countries helped CIA to kidnap, detain and torture — report’ stated that “There are grave reports of torture documented in Morocco. Detainees described torture over several months. One individual, Binyam Mohamed, was transferred by the CIA to Morocco in July 2002, “where his interrogators broke his bones while beating him, sliced his genitals, poured hot liquid onto his penis while cutting it, and threatened him with rape, electrocution and death.”
The collaboration between the United States, Germany, Morocco and other NATO member states such as France will use Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) or drones for future interventions in Northern Africa. The US already has a drone base in Niger that will target West Africa. Morocco is in Northwest Africa. “Exercise African Lion 13 is an annually-scheduled military engagement promoting partnership between the U.S. and Moroccan forces and is the largest exercise of its kind on the continent. For the first time, members of the Federation of German Armed Forces participated in a geospatial portion of the exercise.” The United States and France has a presence in Africa. Is Germany the
This article originally appeared on : Global Research