Rachel explains the story behind the soldiers being killed in Niger.

[milestogo]

Trump decides to ban immigrants from Chad.

Chad pulls its very effective troops out of Niger.

Without the protection of African troops, Americans are killed by ISIS the following week.

Oh yeah, and Chad was banned for making an issue about taxes not paid by EXXON Mobil.


Edit: But, But Benghazi.

[HipChick]

1. Trump has blood on his hands...they fucked up royally

[doc03]

3. Trump's Benghazi? So this is why Trump never said anything about

it for 12 days.

[milestogo]

8. I was amazed that he did not acknowledge the killing of 4 American troops by ISIS the same day

it was announced. Well 3 at first, then 4. I cannot remember any president ever failing to acknowledge the death of troops.

[niyad]

69. I believe I read that Sgt. Johnson's body was not recovered for several days. listed MIA???

[bdamomma]

5. He has alot of blood

on his hands, stupid ass man.

[Towlie]

67. In other words, those dead soldiers DIDN'T know what they signed up for.

[left-of-center2012]

2. So ... a revenge killing?

[bullwinkle428]

6. NO. The Chad military was a very effective partner to US troops in combating

Boko Haram, and after Captain Shithead's newest travel ban including Chad went into effect, Chad made the decision to withdraw their own forces, essentially leaving American troops out there on their own.

[milestogo]

14. The American troops were apparently killed by members of ISIS, not Boko Haram -

Although Chad has been instrumental in fighting Boko Haram in West Africa.

[bullwinkle428]

34. Thanks. I thought the other poster was suggesting the Americans were killed

as a result of a Chadian government conspiracy, which clearly was not the case.

[arthritisR_US]

48. Definitely not the case.

[arthritisR_US]

47. The two groups are one and the same, get real.

[JI7]

54. Boko Haram is the ISIS aligned Group in that part of Africa

[IronLionZion]

61. Boko Haram pledged loyalty to ISIS and are working together

[leon8822]

4. Damn!!! this shit is a lot worst than Bengazi

By a long shit.

[Mediumsizedhand]

11. Since Bengazi is ultimately on Republicans for cutting funds for security,

I hate we leave the reason for that one out.

[bdamomma]

12. may be Democrats

should be repeating over and over Niger, Niger.....

[not fooled]

23. But without

the media corpus picking up on the story and amplifying it over and over again--as they did with Beeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnnngggggggghhhhhhaaaaaaazzzzzzziiiiiiiii1111!!!!!1!1!1! it won't get traction.

Just watch--whaddya wanna bet this one just dies on the vine.

And yeah, dumbass ignoramus racist dump has blood on his hands.

[arthritisR_US]

51. They bloody hell should!

[arthritisR_US]

49. It sure as hell is!

[Mediumsizedhand]

7. Thank you for the information. Will continue to listen.

[bullwinkle428]

10. This is utterly infuriating...he's neck-deep in their blood now.

[Freethinker65]

13. Wait. Trump effectively gave himself an A for destroying ISIS. This must be fake news. Hahaha.

Not funny tho

[malaise]

15. No Chad was banned for demanding that EXXON Mobil paid the millions

it owed in taxes to Chad

[questionseverything]

18. or even worse elaine duke as head of homeland security

would not grant chad an exception even tho they were in niger protecting our soldiers because chad had run out of passport paper

[arthritisR_US]

50. The degradation of your system is now coming to light.

[malaise]

59. Which they could have bought if Exxon had

paid their taxes.
Poor Africa - the looting and plunder continues

[questionseverything]

70. not trying to defend exxon in any way but

wouldn't it have been common sense for homeland security to make an exception to their rule for a country fighting with us against terrorist?

[arthritisR_US]

52. A favour to Tillerson and his Exon pimps at the expense to your troops.

Make America great again...

[Wounded Bear]

16. That was a fascinating segment...

As usual, Rachel connects the dots.

[milestogo]

17. Yes she does...

What a bright light she is in all this darkness.

[SCVDem]

26. My thoughts exactly

Semper Fi
73 - 78

[Wounded Bear]

28. Semper Fi...

[Takket]

19. He MURDERED those troops as surely as if he pulled the trigger himself

And the media is letting him get away with it. Except of course for hero Rachel

We tried to warn these damn deplorables that you can't just elect a xenophobe! That elections have consequences. That the world is not going to let drumpf shit all over them and just put up with it. and now those four soldiers are DEAD, hung out to dry by their commander in chief.

I am LIVID with drumpf and all his WRETCHED voters.................

[dixiegrrrrl]

24. Waiting for the lawsuits.....

Puerto Rico will be suing
families of deceased soldiers in Niger might have a case also, altho that will be a drawn out affair.

[Beartracks]

63. He didn't have to shoot them on 5th Avenue, either.

If he had bothered to clarify he was going to shoot US troops in Niger rather than some unnamed pedestrian in New York, maybe people would've paid more fucking attention.

============

[Achilleaze]

20. The Republican draft dodger in chief is responsible

This is on him and his Republican cronies.

[peggysue2]

21. Yup.

That's the short of it--incompetence and bureaucratic nonsense. Not to mention ignorance of regional history. I just wrote a summary of Rachel's storyline in the thread above.

Pretty sickening. Instead of being told the truth, the American public and the families of the dead have been subjected to a grotesque drama orchestrated by a man who wouldn't know the truth if he fell over it.

[blueinredohio]

22. Has Trey Gowdy heard about this?

[not fooled]

25. He's too busy

holding his fingers in his ears.

[maddiemom]

68. Beat me to it! That was my first thought.

[TexasBushwhacker]

27. Well I was wondering why Chad was added to the list

Now I know.

[moondust]

30. Terrorism!!!!

Remember all those terrorists from Chad, Venezuela, and North Korea that attacked us on 9/11? (Or some other time? I don't remember all the details.) Danger! Danger!



Chad and Vz are maybe being punished for not handing over all the oil Rexxon wants on Rexxon's terms?

[SJMULE]

29. Council on Foreign Relations on Chad/ Niger

https://www.cfr.org/blog/chad-removes-hundreds-soldiers-nigerien-region-affected-boko-haram

[SJMULE]

31. On Niger and its parallels with Benghazi

I was in a Lowe's parking lot a while back and was next to a guy had that douchey look with a "never forget Benghazi" bumper sticker on his jeep. I thought about saying something but didnt. I would love to see that ahole again and scream in his face... REMEMBER NIGER!!!!

[ffr]

32. Investigate.

The president is not above the law.

Lock him up!!!

[FailureToCommunicate]

33. Rachel's news hour helps keep us from **total** despair. She, and her news team, ferret out the

backstory on complex contexts of the daily barrage of bad news.

(Big fan)

[uponit7771]

36. +1

[TheDebbieDee]

35. My short attention span syndrome kicked in - I got frustrated and

turned the channel to TNF and NLCS (sorry Cubbies). So thank you very much for giving me the short and skinny1

[spanone]

37. K&R...

[burrowowl]

38. The POS and the greedy incompetents he appointed

and the resignation of so many from the State Department, etc. puts the U$A is a shit ass position!
God damn him and the asses that voted for him!

[Achilleaze]

60. republicans have weakened America

Not only strategically, but also in terms of our capacity to reckon with the increasing number of extreme weather events related to climate change.

[ecstatic]

39. Uggh. None of the other networks seem to be covering this yet.

So frustrating. This should be all over the news!!!

[burrowowl]

41. Yes it should be!

If we had real news instead of info-distraction!

[flamingdem]

40. So Tillerson pushed this because he wanted Exxon business with Chad?

Some unfair deal no doubt.

Disgusting piece of shit Rexxon and the rump caused this out of spite.

[canetoad]

42. Possibly

But Rachel presented a second, more mundane reason.

All countries need to submit a freshly printed copy of their passport document to the US for security checks etc. Chad happened to have run out of the special paper their passports were printed on.

Chad explained situation to US, asked if they could submit identical document but printed before paper run out. No go said US. Chad added to terror list.

[flamingdem]

43. But what would motivate this spite?

The motive for this stupidity has to come out, can't buy that it's purely beaurocratic with so much on the line.

[canetoad]

44. It could be spite

Or it could be massive, crippling, terrifying inadequacy and disorganisation. Trumps State Department didn't realise that Chad were the good guys.

[JI7]

55. i guess that's why you need people with knowledge and experience which they got rid of . they would

have known how important it was to remain in an alliance with them.

[canetoad]

56. Exactly

They drained all that knowledge and experience right out of the swamp.

[Corgigal]

65. Yeah

cause reading. This president brags about not reading, how could he have known that this made the full combat operational theatre change.

Bad words, sad.

[questionseverything]

80. homeland security was responsible for including chad

both over the state dept and pentagon objections....

but it's just as bad...crapping on our best military partners in Africa ovr a rule? or because they just didn't understand?

[canetoad]

81. Ah, thank you

Message remains the same, just different imbeciles responsible.

[questionseverything]

82. one hand does not seem to know what the other hand is doing

scary times

[oasis]

45. K and R

[arthritisR_US]

46. The spineless repigs will totally ignore this at the

expense of the troops serving.

[arthritisR_US]

53. Im Canadian, living in Canada and loving my neighbour to the south.

I’m so disheartened by what I’ve witnessed in the last 9 months and now the realization of just how far your so called president’s destruction has gone. Nixon was bad but this is a fecking nightmare.

[SweetieD]

57. I read that Chadian troops were in a different part of Niger. Like on the opposite side, so the

Pullout would likely not have affected this operation.

Niger is a large country. It would be like saying someone was harmed in Kentucky because police/ troops were removed from New York. So the geography matters.

In any case we need full and open hearings on this.

[Awsi Dooger]

58. I would never expect Rachel Maddow to understand situational influence

That's one of the main reasons I'm not a fan of hers.

Look, I didn't see the show but as soon as I grasped the topic I was fairly certain Rachel had pounced on something and overestimated the significance while missing a key variable. As popular as she is around here, that's her tendency especially on a recently added topic. She's much better when there's been a month or more to evaluate and target.

[dlk]

62. After Chad Enforced Exxon's Delinquent Tax Payments, Chad Was Added To Trump's Travel Ban

Were these two events connected? One hand does wash the other, in business and in politics.

[Denis 11]

64. We need to push this point hard!

I recall the Bengazi bullshit promoted by the morons last year. The fools couldn't even find Libya on a map.
Niger is Trump's Bengazi, if we let this fact fade away we deserve the Trumpist steamroll we are enduring.

[H2O Man]

66. Recommended.

She provided one of the single best examples of the power of journalism last night, that this old man has ever seen.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

71. ExxonMobil doesn't pay taxes it was well aware of and everybody in the Trump adm looks the other way

The Great American Experiment is harming the entire globe. We've come a long way, baby.

[Heartstrings]

72. Benghazi was the first thing that popped into my head.....

We are in over our heads in "dangerous situations and conflicts" worldwide; from Putin basically telling trump to stop baiting NK, The Middle East, Chad and the militants it was helping us try to control, the numerous natural disasters we've been hit with, etc., etc.....

I have no words to explain how my head and heart feel, other than to say, I just want off this merry go round.....now, please....

[onecent]

73. Jesus, he won't turn in his tax returns, he is a murder X 4, hates black or anyone

who doesn't have white skin,...lies thru his teeth, even with the two scoops...

CAN'T SOMEONE DO SOMETHING WITH THIS MISTAKE OF A PRESIDENT?????????????????????????????????????

[red dog 1]

74. So Comb-Over Boy now has Special Forces blood on his tiny hands

Kick for exposure!

(I love Rachel Maddow)

[bonemachine]

75. Counterpoint:

[link:http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2017/10/do_not_try_to_turn_niger_into_trump_s_benghazi.html|]

Maddow’s speculation, which mirrors a conspiracy theory pushed by the Palmer Report, a fringe website, might be tempting to believe, but it makes several key errors. First, there is simply no evidence that the withdrawal of Chadian forces from Niger had anything to do with the ambush. Examining the basic geography of the crisis makes this clear. Chad’s involvement in Niger was limited to the fight against Boko Haram, a Nigeria-based extremist movement that terrorizes civilians in northwest Nigeria, southeast Niger, southern Chad, and northern Cameroon. The Chadians were deployed to the Diffa region, where they fought effectively against Boko Haram and restored a semblance of stability to communities the extremists had terrorized. Their withdrawal has upset communities in the Diffa region, who (rightly) believe that their own government’s forces are incapable of protecting them from a renewed Boko Haram threat.

As you can see from this map, Diffa is on the opposite side of Niger from Tongo Tongo, where the ambush occurred. Nigerian forces and their American advisers in this region of Niger were not dealing with Boko Haram but instead were working to protect communities from other extremist groups that are active in the region where Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso meet. One of these groups, the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, is suspected of perpetrating the Niger attack.


Chadian forces were not involved in counterterror efforts in this area. There are Chadians involved in the fight against ISGS and other extremist groups across the border in northern Mali, where they continue to serve, but they do not engage in Niger.

In her segment, Maddow incorrectly claimed that Chadian forces were protecting civilians from the ISIS-affiliated ISGS. This simply isn’t true; Chadian forces were never fighting ISGS in Niger. They were fighting a completely different enemy in a different part of the country.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

76. Huffpost has this story as false and the lede.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rachel-maddow-niger-travel-ban_us_59ea060fe4b05b4f1c3ad52f

[Not Ruth]

77. Huffington Post switched sides?

[SleeplessinSoCal]

78. Not at all

Tis a puzzlement.

[Kathy M]

79. I watch rachel for entertainment only ..... may want to get you crytical thinking

going